Pacific Asia Museum, Asian art museum in Pasadena, United States.
The Pacific Asia Museum is an art museum in Pasadena, California, housed in a building designed in the style of a Chinese palace and dedicated to works from Asia and the Pacific region. Its galleries display paintings, ceramics, sculptures, and textiles drawn from many different traditions across that part of the world.
The building was constructed in 1926 by Grace Nicholson, a dealer of Asian art, who wanted a dedicated space for her collection and her trade. After she donated it to the city of Pasadena in 1943, the space was eventually converted into a public museum that opened in 1971.
The building was designed by Marston, Van Pelt & Maybury in the style of a Chinese imperial palace, with green-painted trim and green tile roofs with upturned eaves. Large red Chinese characters and a black dragon are painted on the left end of the pale grey stucco facade. Grace Nicholson, a dealer in Native American and Asian art, supervised the design.
The museum sits in downtown Pasadena and is easy to reach on foot from Colorado Boulevard. A visit typically takes one to two hours, though the courtyard alone is worth a stop on the way through.
Grace Nicholson supervised the design of the building herself, and it was completed in 1929, three years after construction began in 1926. The California Historical Landmark marker at the site, No. 988, calls it an outstanding example of 1920s revival architecture, noted for its Chinese ornamentation.
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