Showcase House Has Ideas for Everybody

There is something in the 1986 Pasadena Showcase House of Design for virtually everyone. See it before it closes on May 18.

The house, the 22nd in a series sponsored by the Pasadena Junior Philharmonic Committee in cooperation with the American Society of Interior Designers, is in San Marino.

By the standards of past showcase houses, the 7,000-square-foot house, built in 1931 for Mr. and Mrs. Colis Huntington Holladay, is relatively small. The 11-foot-high ceilings give the moderate-size rooms more volume than rooms in a typical house with eight-foot-high ceilings.

The remodeled kitchen, complete with $20,000 of Woodmode cabinets, is not unusually large, but judicious wall removal turned it into a thoroughly modern eat-in kitchen, complete with an island cooking unit. Designers were Sandra Ray and Maxine Havens.

Fiber optic lights were used on the back stairs, just off the kitchen, to create an artistic effect that is also a safety feature. The pulsating lights--like those used in disco and nightclub dance floors--delineate the stairs, often a place for accidents.

The lighting design and the entire concept for this area was created by advanced students at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in downtown Los Angeles.

The three-acre grounds of the house afforded the landscape architects involved with the project plenty of room to create both formal and informal gardens. One of the latter worth investigating is No. 29 in the program, “New Ideas in the Garden” by Glenn H. Martin and Peter Barcelo Sr. It features a patio deck with an overhead, a water wall and used railroad ties.

There is no parking at the house, but free parking is available at Bullock’s, 401 S. Lake Ave., Pasadena, where a shuttle bus will transport visitors to and from the house. That’s Merlin Olsen’s voice on the recorded message in the bus; his wife, Susan, is an active member of the committee.

The house is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays, Thursdays and Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays and is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Tickets are $10 at the door.

Proceeds benefit the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and youth music education in the Pasadena area.