Hale Solar Laboratory
- Architect
- Johnson, Kaufman & Coate
- Year
- 1923
- Style
- Spanish Colonial Revival
- City
- Los Angeles, CA
Built in 1923 for astronomer George Ellery Hale, a pioneering figure in American astrophysics, this private solar research laboratory sits on a residential lot south of Caltech, reached down a narrow tree-lined lane off Holladay Road. Architects Johnson, Kaufman & Coate designed it as a roughly T-shaped concrete building blending Mission Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival styles, and it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989.
the building
Tribute to Akhenaten. The main entrance sits at the base of the telescope tower, set beneath an arch carved with an incised bas-relief of Akhenaten, the Egyptian pharaoh who worshipped the sun god Aten — a fitting nod for a laboratory built to study the sun.
the style
The lab blends Mission Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival detailing, giving a working scientific instrument the look of a Pasadena residence rather than an observatory.
More on Spanish Colonial Revivalsignificance
The laboratory was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
nearby
- Katherine Emery Estate
- Edwin Hubble House
- Cordelia A. Culbertson House
- Rose Court
- Robert R. Blacker House
- Bullock's Pasadena