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You knew this museum was amazing, but what about its garden?

When we listed just a few of the reasons that Pasadena won the title of Best Arts Scene in our Sunset Travel Awards (see the June issue f...

Christine Ryan

A cockspur coral tree at the Norton Simon frames Henry Moore’s Draped Reclining Woman.
Photo by Tim Street-Porter, © Norton Simon Art Foundation.

When we listed just a few of the reasons that Pasadena won the title of Best Arts Scene in our Sunset Travel Awards (see the June issue for the complete list of winners), item one was the Norton Simon Museum. We didn’t have room there to mention its sculpture garden, though—an omission we’ll fix now.

The California Summer border.
Photo by Tim Street-Porter, © Norton Simon Art Foundation.

Fifteen years ago, while Frank Gehry was renovating the museum, noted landscape designer Nancy Goslee Power took on the nearly 80,000 square feet of gardens surrounding it. Unlike a building, though, a garden takes time to, well, grow into itself; thanks to the new book A Living Work of Art: The Norton Simon Museum Sculpture Garden (due out later this month), you can see in Tim Street-Porter’s photographs just how well this particular design has matured. And the sculptures aren’t bad either.