Norton Simon Museum

Location: Pasadena, CA | Client: Norton Simon Museum

Client Type:
Cultural

Pasadena's venerable Norton Simon Museum has inspired visitors with world-class art collections and exhibitions for nearly half a century. Celebrating their 50-year anniversary in 2025, the ARG-led Exterior Improvement Project re-envisioned the Museum's street presence and renovated its beloved sculpture garden. The project also included restoration of the Museum's iconic facades, which are clad with approximately 115,000 tiles designed by Edith Heath of Heath Ceramics.

WHAT YOU MAY NOT KNOW

The building was originally designed by the firm of Ladd and Kelsey in 1969 for the Pasadena Art Museum and became the Norton Simon Museum in 1975. Interior renovations were completed by Craig Ellwood in 1977 and Frank Gehry in 1999, which included Nancy Goslee Power’s re-envisioned landscaping in the sculpture garden and front entrance.

The Norton Simon Museum building features distinctive, modern, curvilinear walls which are clad with glazed tiles in earthen hues. The tile was designed by Edith Heath of Heath Ceramics. It is dual-glazed with red over onyx, which provides a range of mottled brown, red and purple shades that are reminiscent of the “coppery plum-colored shadows” of the nearby San Gabriel Mountains from which the artist took inspiration. The tiles provide a delightful handcrafted quality to the modern forms, and the color shifts throughout the day with changing light conditions.