You can help protect a treasured gem in Pasadena’s civic crown – Ambassador Auditorium. A huge senior citizen assisted-living development by Sunrise Senior Living, Inc., is proposed for construction within feet of newly reopened Ambassador, respected by the entertainment world as the “Carnegie Hall of the West.”

Sunrise would be a good neighbor, and it would be hard to find a more compatible user for the former Worldwide Church of God campus than Sunrise.

Yet the Sunrise project has generated significant controversy about its proposed size and mass:

• The size and mass of the Sunrise project is equivalent to the Del Mar Station, and will dwarf and overwhelm its immediate neighbor – Ambassador Auditorium. The proposed size and mass of the project’s design is just inappropriate for the location, and will have significant irreversible impact which cannot be resolved according to the project’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR).
• Demolishing the Ambassador College Hall of Administration affects the historic design of the complex made up by Ambassador Auditorium, its reflecting pool, 30-foot-tall fountain, and the Student Center. The Ambassador Auditorium and its grounds must be protected.
• The City of Pasadena Design Commission approved the overall Ambassador West project, of which Sunrise is a part. The development’s team has not addressed the Design Commission concerns about the massive size.

• Planning Commissioners who voted for Ambassador West expressed concern at the size and massing of the Sunrise Senior Living project, and felt that the Design Commission should have the leeway it requested to make design changes.
  
• The Sunrise project’s construction alone will have a detrimental affect on Ambassador – construction sound vibrations will upset fine acoustics, grime will damage its exterior and reflecting pools, and patron access will be jeopardized.
• We applaud the preservation of the historical buildings and the Great Lawn, however the West Gateway Specific Plan requires the preservation of the historical resources of the Ambassador Auditorium complex.
• Critical parking spaces will be lost, adversely impacting any concert-going experience at Ambassador. Leaders of Pasadena’s three orchestras have voiced concerns about how Sunrise will affect access to and parking for their patrons while visiting Ambassador.
• We welcome what will be a high-end, luxury condominium complex for senior citizens in Pasadena. It is possible for the Sunrise development’s architects to reduce its size and mass to better fit into the Ambassador Auditorium complex and the surrounding neighborhood, and still retain its profit margin.

Though the Pasadena City Council is scheduled to consider the Sunrise project next month, the project redesign demanded by the Design Commission, and echoed by Planning Commissioners, should occur before the Council sets down any decision. The City Council should not approve the EIR when the Sunrise project design issue has not been resolved. We ask the City Council to direct Sunrise to work with the Design Commission to redesign the Sunrise building, reducing it in size, to be in keeping with the size, scale, and character of Green Street and the Ambassador Auditorium.

We are not advocating that the Sunrise project goes away. Rather, we want a project design that is more appropriate for its location. Pasadena deserves better, and Sunrise can do better.

You can help. Tell Pasadena’s City Council that it should
protect Ambassador Auditorium.

For more information, call Doug Huse, Ambassador Auditorium General Manager, at (626) 720-8155
or visit
www.theambassadorauditorium.com and click “Protect Ambassador.”