Pasadena is the most walkable city in the LA basin — an independent city northeast of downtown that has preserved its early 20th-century commercial centre (Old Town), maintained its tree-lined residential streets, and cultivated a cultural identity that includes the Rose Bowl, Caltech, the Huntington Library, and the New Year's Day Tournament of Roses Parade that has been processing down Colorado Boulevard since 1890.
Old Town Pasadena — the stretch of Colorado Boulevard between Pasadena Avenue and Arroyo Parkway — is a restored commercial district of early 20th-century buildings housing restaurants, shops, and the kind of pedestrian-oriented urbanism that most of LA demolished in favour of parking lots. The streets are walkable, the restaurants are excellent (Din Tai Fung, the Taiwanese dumpling chain's US flagship, has its longest queues here), and the architecture — Beaux-Arts, Spanish Colonial, and Art Deco — provides the visual continuity that the car-centric sprawl of greater LA systematically destroyed.
The Gamble House, a few blocks north of Old Town, is a masterpiece of the Arts and Crafts movement — designed by Greene and Greene in 1908 for Procter & Gamble heir David Gamble, and preserved with its original furniture, fixtures, and the obsessive craftsmanship that makes it one of the most important residential buildings in America. The Rose Bowl, in the Arroyo Seco below Old Town, is a 90,000-seat stadium built in 1922 that hosts the annual college football Rose Bowl Game, the monthly Rose Bowl Flea Market (one of the largest in the US), and the UCLA Bruins home games.
Verified Facts
The Tournament of Roses Parade has been held since 1890
The Gamble House was designed by Greene and Greene in 1908
The Rose Bowl was built in 1922 and seats approximately 90,000
Pasadena is an independent city, not part of Los Angeles
Get walking directions
South Arroyo, Pasadena, 91105, United States
