Balboa Park 2

Timken Pavillion of Museum of Art ws regretfully closed.
We took a walk to California Quadrangle
The California Quadrangle, California Building, and California Tower are historic structures that were built for the 1915–16 Panama–California Exposition and served as the grand entry to the event.The buildings and courtyard were designed by architect Bertram Goodhue. They were added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 17, 1974.

The California Building with its ornate facade and blue-and-gold dome, together with the adjoining California Tower, are among the most recognizable landmarks in San Diego. They house the Museum of Us. The design and ornamentation combine many style elements including Gothic, Plateresque, Baroque, Churrigueresque, and Rococo to create the impression of a Spanish Colonial church. The multi-tiered frontispiece is adorned with sculptures by the Piccirilli Brothers, a family of Italian marble carvers who also worked on famous monuments such as the Lincoln Memorial and the New York Public Library.
The dome's design looked to the dome at the Church of Santa Prisca and San Sebastián in Taxco, Mexico. The great central dome is encircled with the inscription "Terram Frumenti Hordei, ac Vinarum, in qua Ficus et Malogranata et Oliveta Nascuntur, Terram Olei ac Mellis", (A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey), (Deuteronomy 8:8 taken from the Vulgate of St. Jerome; see also the Seven Species), as well as the California motto, "Eureka".

The California Tower is 198 feet (60 m) tall. The tower's design is Spanish while the details and color are Mexican in style. The tower is composed of three tiers that shift from a quadrangle to an octagon and then a circle.There is a Maas-Rowe carillon in the tower, first installed in 1946 and replaced in 1967. The carillon can be heard throughout the park. It plays the Westminster Chimes every quarter-hour, and a resident carillonneur plays three songs at noon every day. The tower has been described as "San Diego's Icon," the most photographed and best-known landmark in San Diego.

Modeled after Shakespeare’s Old Globe in London, the Old Globe Theatre was built in 1935 for the presentation of abridged versions of Shakespeare’s plays as part of the California Pacific International Exposition. In March 1978, the Globe Theatre was destroyed in an arson fire but was rebuilt and reopened in 1981

We then returned to Plaza de Panama and had a fast lunch - Ham & Cheese Croissant for me and Potato puff pastry for LaurieRead more