They are captively free, confined in roles but have oversight.

Invokes to majesty and poverty of government, reminiscent of Florence renaissance.

There is a legacy of colonialism, they weren’t lions in Europe but lions came to symbolize certain regal royalty, but lions are native to more than middle east and Africa, as well, there are Asian lions, there are lions in South America, but where there lions in Europe? I don’t even know. There’s this idea […]

For nature, environmental, not for the actual building.

The architecture is a mix of different styles from different countries, just like in America we are all mixed.

To imply venerability. Solid. Stable. Venerable.

Decoration, those fruits had to end up somewhere.

Like a “king’s palace”

What’s a greater animal than a lion? It’s on top of the food chain of dominance. Maybe it is supposed to intimidate.

In China it means protection, and it might have been a symbol of social class in the past.

As a nature form of art conversing with the structure of man.

The more you look, the harder it is to figure it out. They are there to hold up the fruit.

It’s architecture, there aren’t many reasons necessarily.

They were important at the time but contemporaneously they’ve become lost because of technology.

Capture a sense of freedom.

Integrity.

Strategic, to attract a certain kind of person to the city. “If you want a certain stable life just come to Pasadena, just look at our City Hall.”

Lions represent strength and they represent a headship, they are the head of their pride.

Noble by nature, but savage when they need to be.

They are on many government buildings, affiliated with hierarchy. The highest before man.

Lion is the king of the jungle and city hall is the place where our leaders do their job.

They are desensitized on the building.

The felines, considering the size of their brains, I think they know more about life than we do.

Pasadena is the focal point of San Gabriel Valley, king of the jungle.

Top of the food chain in dominance.

It is not that we are all seeing the same lion with the same body, we were given the face and we are meant to visualize the body ourselves.

To bring awareness to all mass lion killings.

I don’t think of animals as exotic, they might be endangered, but I think of them as sainted spirits, and when I think of them that way, they are familiar.

Protective of their own, aggressive to everything else.

They are invisible until they bite your leg off.

Traditional sign of sovereignty and power. Trying to imitate the cowardly lion on Wizard of Oz.

A strong beast that can over power you and hurt you, if they want to. subconsciously.

The city has really old bones.

They are treated exotically because of the details, the fruit.

They don’t have negative connotations until they eat your leg, but they don’t eat a lot of humans.

In the architecture of the building, it’s all on display, but people don’t notice them. people are trained to move forward without taking notice of anything around them. It’s not an environmental thing, it’s a human problem.

They’re here to imply that the city is watching you.

They’re iconic, so in that regard, they don’t have a geography of place.

They seem to be strangely out of place, just not based in any kind of reality, for me.

In oriental culture, they are put in front of buildings as a symbol of protection.

They are exotic because they are African, and they are also exotic because they are an extraordinary thing, they are beautiful.

To me it’s ornamental, they have fruit and vegetables coming out of their mouths. Pacified, almost.

Inviting part of the pride in Pasadena, we watch over for one another.

Does it mean anything to render a lion full-bodied versus a lion decapitated or partially shown to us?

City employees should protect and serve the community.

They are by definition, one of the most exotic animals of all of society, because of their power.

Remind us that we need to do good things here.

Those things are just meant to ward off evil spirits and portray dominance.

The city is fearful of the future.

Implicit implication of government serving the interest, reminder of those working there and those coming in.

Safety within the sanctuary

They’re familiar but exotified by the environment.

Protection against any evil spirits from the fathers of the city from conducting the business that is important to Pasadena.

Somebody was a Leo! (Leos look out for other Leos)

They are a feline family. That’s what’s so interesting about cats, you see them asleep and they’re not. Sort of a cover up.

Architectural eclecticism that allows itself to incorporate lions to where the lions do make sense. They fit in to the architectural diversity of this site.

Subtle definition of strength.

Lions eat people and other animals, but they want to be healthy, they don’t want to eat more.

To bring together the feeling of wilderness in the middle of an urban.

I have been in this space a million times, I have only processed them as shields, I’ve never processed them as lions.

“We are the bosses in Pasadena.”

I wish people knew that things could be this pretty and be ecological too.

Makes me think of a riddle, the snakes, the riddle of the snakes! in order to pass through between them, you need to know something.

They are put in important places.

Sound conveys a whole different message than visuals, than an image.

That’s the place where they take care of everyone and everything.

It’s enforcing to understand the power of sound.

It is an alien figure. there’s no lions in America.

They are images of lions, not whole lions, just their head.

It looks like the lions are in service presenting some sort of harvest or abundance.

It’s protecting the ideals of the city.

They are awake, they still have souls when they’re statues sometimes.

It looks like they’re eating something, but it’s fruit, or vegetables, not animals. I’d say they are protective over aggressive, but somewhere in between, because they’re definitely devouring something.

They are part of the environment.

The lion in Budhism means accomplishment.

Lions, Tigers… are millennia-old pitch models for power and authority fashioned out of religious figuration intended to exploit the animal instinct in humans for primal fear that, like the King of the Beasts, irrationally penetrates every sinew to create the conditions in which leaders subjugate instead of facilitate followers. Not unlike using scantily dressed women […]

Sometimes things that are invisible are important.

Superstition.

Fortitude of royalty, of strength, upholding the crest of the city and placing it as a symbol. subtly.

Like gargoyles. The City of Pasadena wants to identify itself with something powerful and beautiful.

To represent power, nobility, and two continents coming together.

There are pictures of what most city halls are inspired by and it’s four different spots. there are animals in all of those. Maybe it’s lions.

It is the faces of the building, rather than showing the entire lion which is separate from the building.

They look like they are in service to the community or their leader, they look like they are somebody’s lions.

Halls of power, representation of the people that work there.

They are weirdly familiar, I’ve see the same lions in other buildings before.

City Hall is supposed to symbolize justice in a way, and the lion is a creature of nature. There is no flaw in nature, animals can kill each other and it’s ok. Survival, it’s natural, so that’s justice.

It’s this idea of creating a sublime nature within the city.

Contrast between nature and construct of man.

Strength of a public institution or strength of community.