1549 El Prado
San Diego, CA 92101, USA

Balboa Park, House of Hospitality, 1549 El Prado, San Diego, San Diego County, CA

The House of Hospitality is one of the "character defining" structures of the Central Mesa area of Balboa Park, a National Historic Landmark District. The building was originally constructed in 1914 as an open plan exhibit hall for the Panama California Exposition of 1915-1916, and named the Foreign Liberal Arts Building. Designed by Carleton Monroe Winslow, F.A.I.A., under the supervision of Exposition Architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, F.A.I.A., the exterior shell of the building recalls the Churrigueresque style of Spanish Colonial architecture of the late 17th Century. The building was significantly remodeled by architect Richard S. Requa, A.I.A. in 1933-1936, and was used as the ceremonial "House of Hospitality" for receiving dignitaries and visitors to the California-Pacific International Exposition in 1935-1936. Requa retained the original 1914 structural system and facades, and inserted two floors of office and public rooms and an open "Mexican Colonial" central courtyard into the 1914 shell. The remodeled structure included a civic auditorium and a public restaurant with a new terraced garden on the south side of the building.