First Trust Building and Garage, Los Angeles: architect, style and history

The First Trust Building and Garage, also known as Lloyd's Bank, went up in 1927 on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, designed by John Cyril Bennett and Fitch Harrison Haskell in a blend of Mediterranean Revival, Renaissance Revival, and Beaux-Arts styles. Its real innovation was underground: Caltech professor R. R. Martel engineered an earthquake-resistant frame of steel beams and girders set in reinforcing concrete, a system considered an important advance in earthquake-proof construction. The building joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

the building

South facade and murals. The exterior carries decorative stonework, a red tile hip roof topped with a cupola, and a frieze and balustrade on the south facade, while the interior is decorated with murals depicting scenes from around Pasadena.

the style

The design mixes Mediterranean Revival with Renaissance Revival and Beaux-Arts touches, dressing a bank and garage in tile roofs, ornamental stonework, and a cupola—typical finery for 1920s Pasadena commercial building.

significance

R. R. Martel's earthquake-proof support system of steel beams and girders with reinforcing concrete was regarded as an important advancement in earthquake-resistant construction and became a standard building method. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

nearby

Pasadena Playhouse 370 ft · Spanish Colonial Revival · 1925
Singer Building 0.1 mi · Spanish Colonial Revival
Odd Fellows Temple 0.1 mi · Spanish Colonial Revival · 1918
Edmund Blinn House 0.2 mi · Prairie School · 1905
Theodore Parker Lukens House 0.3 mi · Queen Anne
Miss Orton's Classical School for Girls 0.4 mi · Colonial Revival · 1900

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