Pull up a Morris chair: The 28th Craftsman Weekend is going online

Built in 1906, the Louise C. Bentz House was designed by prominent Pasadena architects Charles and Henry Greene.
Built in 1906, the Louise C. Bentz House was designed by prominent Pasadena architects Charles and Henry Greene. (Dennis Hill)

Unable to celebrate its 28th Craftsman Weekend in the usual historic locations because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the preservation group Pasadena Heritage has moved its fall celebration of architecture online, but with an expanded lineup.

With so many events shut down this year, it's reassuring to see the event return Nov. 6-15 as “Preservation Pasadena: Craftsman to Modern,” a reimagined virtual examination of more than 50 years of architecture, from Arts and Crafts to Midcentury Modern.

Hosted on Zoom, the event will include tours, lectures and panel discussions designed to revisit familiar subjects in new ways, from the preservation of minority communities to the influence of Asian and Mediterranean design on California architecture (Castle Green, the Caltech campus and 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival houses designed by George Washington Smith and Wallace Neff, among others).

Highlights include a walking tour of Prospect Park, Pasadena’s first National Register Historic District and home to Charles and Henry Greene’s Bentz House; Arthur and Alfred Heineman’s Hindry House; Sylvanus Marston’s Hinds House; and Frank Lloyd Wright’s concrete block Millard House. (This is an exterior tour and will include images of the homes’ interiors but not live footage).

Lectures will explore the legacy of architect John Parkinson, who designed Bullocks Wilshire and Union Station; a century of Stickley furniture at the Gamble House; the effect of Sunset magazine on the West; and a screening of the documentary “Neutra: Survival Through Design” with Barbara Lamprecht, one of the premier authorities on Richard Neutra’s work. Moving outside Pasadena, the programming will also include a 90-minute, prerecorded, online exploration of the life and times of America’s most famous woodworker, Sam Maloof.

If you are unable to attend events during the scheduled times, recordings will be available for a week afterward for those who have purchased tickets, with the exception of the documentary.

What: Preservation Pasadena: Craftsman to Modern

When: Nov. 6-15

How: Zoom

Tickets: $12 and $15 per program

Info: pasadenaheritage.org

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.