Completed in 1927, Pasadena City Hall is a nationally significant monument of civic architecture. The architecture firm of Bakewell and Brown designed the building; the firm had previously gained national attention for their design of San Francisco City Hall in 1915.

Pasadena City Hall is a Beaux Arts building constructed of reinforced concrete with a stucco-plaster finish surface, elaborate cast stone ornamentation, clay tile roof, and a Spanish Baroque domed tower. Decorative cast stone features include cartouches, finials, urns, entablatures, lion heads, garlands, balustrades, and the Pasadena symbol of crown and key. The 170,000 square foot building is designed around a central courtyard with a cast-stone Baroque-style fountain.

A ten-year seismic retrofit project earned a Conservancy Preservation Award in 2008.