Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens

California has its art collections and its share of millionaires who made them a part of the coastal fabric. Skin-deep LA is no exception. Somewhere in the far reaches of Pasadena sits a paradise dreamed up by Henry E. Huntington, heir to the Pacific Central Railroad and developer of the electric streetcar lines that once traversed the city from downtown to the sea (yes, LA did have a decent public transportation system once), that is now a rolling country of gardens and artworks.

His Beaux Arts mansion and 600-acre ranch of a century past transformed into the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens that now houses no fewer than 14 themed gardens on some sun-kissed 207 acres of land. 

It’s easy to spend a day here, or a couple. The latest permanent installation is a verdant one with pagodas, peaceful views and rock formations. The Garden of Flowing Fragrance, or Liu Fang Yuan, has been an ambitious project eight years in the making, which reflects traditional Suzhou-style scholar gardens and features a 1.5-acre lake, a complex of pavilions, a tea house and tea shop and five stone bridges, all set against a wooded backdrop of mature oaks and pines.

The 3.5-acre Flowing Fragrance is only the initial experience of what will eventually be a 12-acre garden that has had most of its building elements shipped in from China and carved on site by stone cutters, wood carvers and artisans from the Suzhou region.

China’s great garden-building traditions have centered upon the homes of royalty and nobility over the centuries to later become the quarry of wealthy merchants with scholarly interests. Gardens were places for literary and artistic activities such as poetry, painting and calligraphy.

Artistic shapes in this garden give into poetic purposes: the round gates in the “Terrace of the Jade Mirror” are shaped like the full moon; “Terrace that Invites the Mountains” looks over the lake to the distant San Gabriel Mountains to complete the scene.

Future plans call a lakeside performance hall for music, dance, opera and readings; a large courtyard; a small climate-controlled and secure space for decorative objects; and a covered walkway alongside the Flower Washing Brook. Small garden spaces, displays of penjing (Chinese bonsai) and a hill with a viewing pavilion that pans the garden, the lake and the San Gabriel Mountains beyond are also in the works.

- by Lark Ellen Gould, Los Angeles Reporter for HelloMetro  (Click to leave a message)