In 1971, the American Institute of Architects awarded the prestigious AIA Industrial Arts Medal to self-proclaimed “potter” Edith Heath. It was the first time the organization had bestowed such recognition on a ceramicist.
Heath, the remarkable founder of the Sausalito-based Heath Ceramics, is probably better known for midcentury homewares. Her earthen tableware captures a casual West Coast modernism in hues drawn from California’s landscape. Her company was founded in 1947, and most design aficionados have a Heath bud vase or generous serving bowl in their collection. Yet the AIA recognition shed light on what was then an emerging and exciting facet of her practice—architectural tile. “Heath Ceramics have become integral parts of architecture in installations across the United States,” noted the jury.
The award was presented on the heels of the completion of the Pasadena Art Museum (now the Norton Simon Museum). Unlike earlier installations, where Heath created discrete decorative walls or paving, she collaborated closely with architects Ladd & Kelsey on the building, which opened to the public in 1969, developing a custom design to wrap the entire undulating façade. Approximately 115,000 ceramic tiles were fully integrated into the architecture. “My idea was that tile should be designed to ‘fill a space’ as in filling a space within a canvas,” recalled Heath in her 1994 oral history as she described the unique, five-by-fifteen-inch size of each handmade tile. “The architects gladly concurred.”
This jump from domestic object to cultural building marked a shift from home to civic space—a liberation that parallels wider societal transformations of the period. Heath was always inspired by the natural world and long defied gendered mores. Without taking up the torch for any specific movement, she modeled principles of the environmental and women’s movements. “Very few people could do this, to move from something that’s very intimate, like housewares—mugs, ashtrays, plates—and be able to go to a museum and make it look sculptural and organic,” says curator Jennifer Volland. “It’s just an incredible testament to [Heath’s] ability to work across varying scales. Whether it’s the private setting of a home or in the public sphere, she was always aware of her surroundings and that didn’t change.”
In Pasadena, Heath drew inspiration from the San Gabriel Mountains. The shade of the tiles matched the surrounding hills, she recalled in her oral history—“a purpley-red-plum color in the distance, so the silhouette of the building against the mountains was very handsome.” Finding the right hue required trial and error. She tested various glazes, layering colors and chemical compositions to find the desired effect: a two-part glaze, red-brick over volcanic onyx. Textured with black bubbles and mottled patches of rusty red, each tile is unique. Each catches the light at a slightly different angle around the museum’s curved surface, like scales. Ladd & Kelsey had originally wanted a building that recalled the hulking sandstone at Hadrian’s mausoleum in Rome, Castel Sant’Angelo— but Heath’s design is no tomb. The surface is changeable and alive. No wonder she walked away with an AIA medal.
Ever entrepreneurial, Heath would go on to grow the company’s architectural tile offerings, expanding the Sausalito factory to accommodate demand. She was constantly prototyping new materials, techniques, and ideas; always seeking ways to improve her products and processes. Her experiments with three-dimensional ceramics included glazed blocks—which unfortunately never made it into production, but would have been incredible options for fire-resistant construction.
A photograph taken during the museum’s construction shows Heath inspecting the oxblood-colored tiles. Wearing a brown shop coat with cherry-red tights, she leans over a plywood table, her form in contrast with the façade’s modular pattern. Just over four tiles high, she’s absorbed in realizing her singular vision. Heath pursued new ideas for architectural tile ideas until her death in 2005. But even as Heath Ceramics grew, changing ownership in 2003, the connection between Heath and the Norton Simon Museum began to fade from public consciousness. Some of the original tiles, so carefully proportioned, were cut off in a mid-1990s renovation; others were stained or damaged by poorly-located sprinklers. The tiles were no longer a testament to Edith Heath’s authorship, but simply building material.
Fortunately, in 2023, the Norton Simon Museum embarked upon a conservation study to better understand the condition of the façade and conserve the tiles. Liz MacLean of Architectural Resource Group (ARG) led a largely female team in surveying the building to identify what areas required cleaning, repair, or replacement.
“One of the biggest challenges was the shape of the façade itself,” says MacLean. “There are countless curves.” ARG and visualization consultant Aqyer used a combination of LiDAR laser technology, cameras, and drones to scan the surface. From that data they could create a high-resolution, photorealistic 3D model and elevation drawings to carefully document areas that needed care.
To restore the façade, ARG and museum staff worked directly with Heath Ceramics to create replacement tiles and formulate a new, lead-free glaze with the same characteristics as the original. Because the original 5×15-inch tiles were custom and manufactured in Southern California, the Heath Ceramics team needed to develop a new plaster mold and custom dye that could be used with Heath’s ram press to recreate the correct proportions and texture.
“Ceramics are inherently complex, and by nature resist easy replication,” explain Aline Cautis and Eric Gaietto, Heath tile manager and director of tile sales, respectively, over email. “Getting the new tile to integrate seamlessly into the existing installation required our team to navigate the unpredictable behavior of clay, including shrinkage rates, texture, and glaze fit. Multiple iterations of molds and test tiles were created before we landed on a version that honored the original while being compatible with today’s production standards.”
Leslie Denk, the Norton Simon Museum’s Vice President of External Affairs, is delighted to see Heath’s legacy as a maker and designer maintained and celebrated. “We often focus on the artwork or the gallery, but to give this attention to the façade is eye-opening,” she says. “To treat these tiles the same way we conserve an artwork—with painstaking, meticulous care—is to honor the creator’s work.”
In October 2025, the restoration was unveiled to the public alongside other site and landscape improvements, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Norton Simon Museum. Now, visitors can experience Heath’s contribution to modern architecture up close. Her ceramic façade—cleaned and repaired, tonal and textured—is not a backdrop to art history, but a piece of it.