Page 30 - 2014 Travel Guide to California

CA.ARCHITECTURE & GARDENS
BY DAVID ARMSTRONG
Building in Harmony
From the Golden Gate Bridge to hidden retreats,
Californians have always embraced the new and environmentally attuned
HAKONE GARDENS
In the hills of Saratoga overlooking
Silicon Valley, Hakone Gardens
provides an oasis of peace and
tranquility to balance the frenetic
pace of the tech world below.
Hakone Gardens is a National
Trust for Historic Preservation site
and is the oldest Japanese and
Asian estate, retreat and gardens in
the Western Hemisphere. For more
on Silicon Valley, see pages 86-91.
Architecture in California and the lush
public gardens that add grace notes to the
Golden State began to take shape in the late
18th century, when the Spanish advanced
north from Mexico City to the rustic,
remote province of Alta California.
The California missions, 21 Roman
Catholic churches built from 1769 to 1823
on a north-south axis, set the tone. The
adobe-walled, orange-tile-roofed churches
erected by the Franciscan friars, eventually
formed the heart of major cities such as San
Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The
missions’ gardens were strictly utilitarian,
intended to produce food. Eye-pleasing
garden design blossomed later.
The Spanish-flavored colonial buildings
fell into disrepair after the newly inde-
pendent Mexican government desancti-
fied them. After moldering for years, many
were reconstructed in the 20th century,
opening to the public for tours, history les-
sons and, of course, worship. Today, you
can find information about all things Mis-
sion online at the California Missions
Resource Center.
Missions to Victorians to Beaux Arts
The missions influenced California archi-
tecture and design for years to come. The
abundant open spaces, arches, tile-roofed
buildings and breezy arcades of Stanford
University’s main quad are legacies of the
Mission colonial era. The ornately elabo-
rated Casa de Balboa, in San Diego’s Balboa
Park, is another design legacy of the
28 2014 T R AV E L G U I D E TO C A L I F O R N I A
JERRY VENZ. OPPOSITE: PALETTE7/SHUTTERSTOCK; SAN FRANCISCO TRAVEL ASSOCIATION/SCOTT CHERNIS