The Dalton Vision: Home is Where the Art Is

What if you created a place that greeted you with a wall of mosaic art? What if you abandoned the common slick urban design and embraced a more inspired approach. What if art and luxury were truly intertwined?

These are the questions developer Bob Champion says he asked when he first started to create the Dalton, a condominium project on Arroyo Parkway near Cordova Street now nearing completion.

Champion’s company has been at the forefront of cutting-edge urban development for 18 years and has won a number of awards. He has been adjunct professor in real estate development at USC for over eight years.

The Dalton is the result of what Champion calls “a new vision in urban living” and it stands out among other architectural styles in the city with a inspired approach to urban design. The project is the collaboration between a homebuilder and a fine artist. The two might seem like an unlikely team, but when artisans and artists are passionate about their work, synergetic approaches can evolve and the Dalton seems to be one of those eclectic architectural structures.

 

The Dalton will be among the first regional developments to incorporate a large scale project like Bob Zoell’s ceramic tile murals into the design elements of a urban residential structure. Zoell’s passion for public art and for art in unexpected places fueled much of the planning behind the Dalton’s design. In the end, it has created a larger-than-life-like significance at the Dalton.

The residents who will live in the condominium project will be embraced by art at every corner. Homes will come furnished with gallery walls designed to include art collections.

According to Bob Champion, the developer of the project, some reservations have already been placed. The project should be finished in October. Residents are expected to move in toward November, he said.

 

“Well, what is definitely different about this project is the units that we’ve built,” Champion said recently. “They are all loft style units, which means that the ceilings are 11 ½ feet high; whereas, in a standard apartment or condo they would be eight and a half to nine feet.”

“As a result of that height, all of the windows are floor to ceiling glass,” he said. “All of the floors are polished concrete, all of the cabinetry is updated and produced and delivered from Europe, all of the counter tops are Caesar stone – which is a much higher grade stone finish than Chinese granite, which is typical.”
Champion continued: “A third of the units on our top floor, which we call our penthouses, are two-story units and on the rooftops of these units there are private patios with city views ranging anywhere from 500 to 1,000 square feet, with barbeques and fireplaces. It is really a very different product than what has been built in Pasadena so far.”

The Dalton, 238 S Arroyo Pkwy., Pasadena. For information, call (626) 796-9782 or visit http://www.daltonlife.com/thedalton.