Page 39 - 2015 Travel Guide to California

CA.ARCHITECTURE & GARDENS
BY DAVID ARMSTRONG
Harmonious Building
Californians have always embraced the new and environmentally attuned
The Spanish-flavored colonial buildings
fell into disrepair after the newly inde-
pendent Mexican government desanctified
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.
CONSERVATORY
OF FLOWERS
Completed in 1878, San Francisco’s
Conservatory of Flowers is a
greenhouse and botanical garden
inspired by the Kew Gardens in
London. It’s the oldest building and
one of the most visited sites in
Golden Gate Park, and is listed on
the National Register of Historic
Places and the California Register
of Historical Places.
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 mis-
sions’ gardens were strictly utilitarian,
intended to produce food. Eye-pleasing
garden design blossomed later.
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 mis-
sions, as is the splendid 1927 San Gabriel
Mission Playhouse.
By the 1860s, long, deep, narrow, high-
ceilinged wooden row houses populated
boomtowns like San Francisco. The Victo-
rians were built from the 1860s to the
1910s. In the 1970s, the once-modest
houses were reborn as gentrified, vibrantly
hued Painted Ladies. Surviving California
2015 T R AV E L G U I D E TO C A L I F O R N I A 37