Sculpture Garden Near Me in Pasadena: Norton Simon's Pond and Rodins

For a sculpture garden near me on the Pasadena side of Los Angeles County, the Norton Simon Museum at 411 West Colorado Boulevard is the one to plan an afternoon around. Rodin's The Thinker, The Burghers of Calais and the Monument to Balzac greet you outside the front doors, and behind the galleries a lily pond inspired by Monet's Giverny holds bronzes by Henry Moore and Aristide Maillol. The garden reopened in November 2025 after ten months of work.

The museum began as the Pasadena Art Institute, founded in 1922, which changed its name to the Pasadena Art Museum in April 1954 and turned toward modern art. It commissioned the local firm Ladd and Kelsey to design an 85,000-square-foot building on the old Carmelita site, where Jeanne Carr had once planted one of the area's most celebrated gardens, and the new museum opened on November 24, 1969.

Money troubles followed. In 1974 the trustees reached an agreement with the industrialist and collector Norton Simon, who took over management in exchange for the museum's debts, and it reopened on March 1, 1975, taking his name that October. Between 1996 and 1999 his widow, the actress Jennifer Jones Simon, oversaw a renovation of the galleries by Frank Gehry, finished in 2000.

Before you look at a single statue, look at the walls. The curving facade is covered in 115,000 glazed tiles made by the ceramicist Edith Heath, each 5 by 15 inches and finished by layering Onyx over Red Brick glazes, which gives the building its rippling brown tone. In 1971 Heath received the AIA Industrial Arts Medal for the work, the first time a non-architect won it.

The tiles had a proper restoration for the museum's 50th anniversary in 2025, led by Architectural Resources Group in collaboration with Heath Ceramics. Stand at the corner of Orange Grove and Colorado, where the museum sits at the junction of the 210 and 134 freeways, to see how the glaze shifts with the light.

The entrance garden is where most of the Rodins live. The museum's own list places The Thinker, The Burghers of Calais, the Monument to Balzac, The Walking Man and Saint John the Baptist here, along with single figures from the Calais group: Pierre de Wissant, both clothed and nude, and Jean de Fiennes. You can walk among them before you reach the ticket desk.

Modern pieces share the lawn. Barbara Hepworth's Four Square (Walkthrough) is meant to be walked through, Richard Serra contributes Base Plate Deflection, Herbert Ferber's Egremont II stands nearby, and Peter Voulkos is here with Black Butte Divide. The mix of nineteenth-century bronze and twentieth-century steel is a small preview of the collection inside.

When the museum remodeled in the 1990s, Gehry handled the interiors and the landscape designer Nancy Goslee Power reworked the grounds. Jennifer Jones Simon asked her for a garden just like Monet's Giverny. Power did not copy it; she replaced the old rectangular concrete pool with a large, naturally shaped pond edged with daylilies and bog plants, and several kinds of water lilies float on it today.

Around the water you will find Henry Moore's King and Queen, Two-Piece Reclining Figure No. 9 and Upright Motives No. 5 and No. 8, Aristide Maillol's Mountain, River and Air, Henri Laurens's Les Ondines and two works by Jacques Lipchitz. A separate Asian Sculpture Garden holds stone figures from South and Southeast Asia, including a Tamil Nadu Vishnu from around 875.

Look too for the quieter modern pieces tucked among the plantings: Henry Moore's Standing Figure: Knife Edge and Draped Reclining Woman, John Mason's Black Cross and an untitled work by Robert Morris. The paths meander, so a slow full circuit of the pond takes in every piece and a few benches with a view back to the tiled facade.

For the 50th anniversary the Sculpture Garden closed for ten months under a campus-wide Exterior Improvement Project. The architecture firm ARG and the landscape firm SWA rebuilt the pond at a slightly smaller scale with a lower water level and connected the granite fountain to it. The garden reopened in November 2025, and the museum notes that wildlife came back with the visitors, so watch the reeds for birds.

The museum opens at noon. It runs until 5 pm on Monday, Thursday and Sunday and until 7 pm on Friday and Saturday, and it is closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. Final entry is 45 minutes before closing, and the café and store close 15 minutes early. Advance tickets are recommended but not required, and they make check-in quicker on busy weekends. Free admission also extends to active military personnel with ID and to members of AAM and ICOM.

Admission is $20 for adults and $15 for seniors 62 and older, and it is free for everyone 18 and under, students with ID and members. The best deal is the first Friday of every month, when entry is free for all from 4 to 7 pm; arrive at 4 to see the pond before the light fades. Through February 8, 2027, the special exhibition The Art of Kandy: Sri Lanka's Last Kingdom is on view inside, and a garden-themed tour, Trees, Landscapes and Sacred Nature, runs on Saturday, October 24 at 1 pm.

The museum is a short drive or a longer stroll from Old Pasadena, whose center is the corner of Colorado Boulevard and Fair Oaks Avenue, the zero point of the city's street grid. Further east, the Pasadena Playhouse at 39 South El Molino Avenue, completed in 1925 in Spanish Colonial Revival style by the architect Elmer Grey, is worth a look.

Address: Norton Simon Museum, 411 West Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91105, at Orange Grove Boulevard. Open Monday, Thursday and Sunday noon to 5 pm, Friday and Saturday noon to 7 pm, closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for seniors, and free for 18 and under. The museum's parking lot is free, with limited free street parking nearby. Pasadena Transit lines 10 and 33 and Metro bus 180 stop in front, and the closest rail station is Memorial Park on the Metro A Line, at 125 East Holly Street.