California Quadrangle

The California Quadrangle, California Building, and California Tower are historic structures located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California. They were built for the 1915–16 Panama-California Exposition and served as the grand entry to the Expo. The buildings and courtyard were designed by architect Bertram Goodhue. They were added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 17, 1974. They now house the Museum of Us.

 

Entrance to the Plaza de California, 1916

The Quadrangle includes the California Building and Tower on the north side, and Evernham Hall and the St. Francis Chapel on the south side. Between them is an open space linked by arcaded passageways and massive arched gateways to form the Plaza de California. The original Balboa Park Administration Building (now the Gill Administration Building) lies just outside the Quadrangle, adjacent to and west of the California Building. Unlike most of the exhibits at the Expo, the Quadrangle buildings were intended to be permanent.

 

The Plaza de California is the main entryway to Balboa Park, approached over the Cabrillo Bridge. That entry is currently a two-lane road providing vehicle access to the park. The city approved plans to divert vehicle traffic away from the Plaza de California and restore it as a pedestrian-only promenade, hoping to complete the project in time to celebrate the 2015 centennial of the Exposition. However, the plan was challenged in court and was overturned by a judge on February 4, 2013, on the grounds that the city had not followed its own Municipal Code requirements in approving it.

 

California Building and Tower

The California Building with its ornate facade and blue-and-gold dome, together with the adjoining California Tower, are among the most recognizable landmarks in San Diego. They house the Museum of Us. The design and ornamentation combine many style elements including Gothic, Plateresque, Baroque, Churrigueresque, and Rococo to create the impression of a Spanish Colonial church. The dome's design looked to the dome at the Church of Santa Prisca and San Sebastián in Taxco, Mexico. The great central dome is encircled with the inscription "Terram Frumenti Hordei, ac Vinarum, in qua Ficus et Malogranata et Oliveta Nascuntur, Terram Olei ac Mellis", (A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey), (Deuteronomy 8:8 taken from the Vulgate of St. Jerome; see also the Seven Species), as well as the California motto, "Eureka".

 

California Building and California Tower

The building's facade features stone ornamentation as well as many historical figures and busts sculpted from modeling clay and plaster, depicting prominent people from California, England, Mexico, and Spain. These include Junípero Serra, Philip III of Spain, Sebastián Vizcaíno, George Vancouver, Luís Jayme, Carlos III of Spain, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, Gaspar de Portolà, and Antonio de la Ascención. The facade also features the shield of the United States and the coats of arms of California and Mexico.

 

The California Tower is 198 feet (60 m) tall and is open for public tours as of January 1, 2015. The tower's design is Spanish while the details and color are Mexican in style. The tower is composed of three tiers that shift from a quadrangle to an octagon and then a circle. There is a Maas-Rowe carillon in the tower, first installed in 1946 and replaced in 1967. The carillon can be heard throughout the park. It plays the Westminster Chimes every quarter-hour, and a resident carillonneur plays three songs at noon every day. The tower has been described as "San Diego's Icon," the most photographed and best-known landmark in San Diego.

 

The State of California paid the $250,000 cost to develop the California Building and Tower for the 1915 Exposition. Although California owned the building, it was turned over to the San Diego government in 1926. During the Exposition the California Building was the home of the Expo's theme exhibit, an anthropological display called "The Story of Man through the Ages." After the Expo ended, the exhibit was retained and expanded, eventually becoming the Museum of Us.

 

Here’s a local business that supports the community

 

Google map-