Plan a Pasadena office IT relocation 90 days out. Pasadena has a specific complication most Southern California markets don’t: a large share of the desirable office space sits in historic and older buildings particularly around Old Pasadena, the Playhouse District, and Colorado Boulevard where plaster walls, landmark protections, and dated electrical systems make cabling significantly harder than in a modern building.
We’re based in Pasadena, on East Colorado Boulevard. We’ve moved a lot of offices in this city, and the pattern is consistent: the technical work is routine, and the building is where the surprises live.
The historic building problem
Pasadena’s architecture is one of its best features and one of the harder places to run cable.
What you run into:
Plaster and lath walls. Not drywall. Fishing cable through plaster is slower, messier, and more likely to require repair afterward. Some walls simply can’t be used as pathways.
No drop ceilings. Many older buildings have hard or decorative ceilings, sometimes original. There’s no accessible plenum to run through.
Landmark and historic designation. Buildings with historic status have restrictions on what can be altered, including where you can drill and what can be surface-mounted. This may require review before work begins.
Dated electrical. Older buildings frequently can’t supply the power a modern server room needs without an upgrade. Check circuit capacity during the walkthrough, not after the racks arrive.
Asbestos. Real possibility in pre-1980 construction. If it’s present, any work disturbing it requires certified abatement — which is both a cost and a schedule item.
What this means for your budget: cabling in a historic Pasadena building can run substantially above a modern office. Surface-mounted raceway is often the practical answer, and a good contractor can route it discreetly.
Practical advice: during the walkthrough, ask the landlord directly whether there’s existing cabling in the space and what condition it’s in. Reusing sound existing pathways is dramatically cheaper than creating new ones.
Newer Pasadena space
Not everything in Pasadena is a hundred years old. The corridors along South Lake Avenue, parts of East Colorado, and the newer developments near the 210 include modern buildings with standard drop ceilings and proper pathways.
If you have a choice between an older building with character and a modern one, factor the infrastructure cost difference into the comparison. It’s not trivial.
Connectivity in Pasadena
Generally good.
| Situation | Timeline |
|---|---|
| Fiber in building | 2–4 weeks |
| New provider, fiber present | 4–8 weeks |
| Construction required | 60–120 days |
Pasadena’s commercial corridors are reasonably well served. Older buildings are the variable — a beautiful 1920s building may have had fiber run into it, or may not.
Ask before signing: which carriers are lit in the building, and where the demarc is physically located. In older buildings the demarc is sometimes in an inconvenient place, which adds cabling distance.
Who’s moving in Pasadena, and what they need
Pasadena’s business mix affects requirements more than people expect.
Engineering and scientific firms. The JPL and Caltech ecosystem means a lot of local companies do computationally heavy work — simulation, modeling, large datasets. These environments need serious bandwidth internally, not just to the internet. Plan for it.
Professional services and law firms. Document management systems, client confidentiality obligations, and increasingly, client security questionnaires. Your network design has security implications.
Medical practices. The Huntington Hospital area has a dense cluster of medical offices. Moving a practice means HIPAA obligations apply to the move itself — device handling, data protection in transit, and proper decommissioning of the old space.
Nonprofits. Pasadena has many. Budget constraints are usually real, which makes the “reuse existing cabling where sound” question especially worth asking.
The 90-day timeline
90 days out
- Order primary and backup circuits
- Walk the space with your IT provider — for older buildings this is essential, not optional
- Identify whether the building has historic designation or restrictions
- Ask about existing cabling and its condition
- Check electrical capacity for the server room
- Ask directly about asbestos in pre-1980 buildings
60 days out
- Finalize cabling design, accounting for building constraints
- Get any required landlord or historic review approvals
- Book the contractor — confirm experience with older buildings
- Start phone number porting
- Decide what moves and what gets replaced
30 days out
- Cabling installation
- Rack and network hardware
- Electrical work if needed
- Full network testing
- Confirm circuit activation in writing
Move week
- Verified backups
- Label and photograph all connections
- Physical move
- Reconnect, test, confirm
- Staff on site the first business day
After
- Keep the old circuit two weeks
- Update your address everywhere, including your Google Business Profile
- Proper decommissioning and data destruction at the old space
What we see go wrong in Pasadena specifically
Assuming a beautiful building is an easy building. The two are frequently inversely related.
Discovering the electrical won’t support the server room. After the equipment has arrived.
No pathway planning. In a building with no drop ceiling and plaster walls, where the cable physically goes needs deciding early, with the landlord’s agreement.
Skipping the walkthrough. Phone estimates for older Pasadena buildings are guesses. Someone needs to see the space.
Frequently asked questions
How far ahead should I plan a Pasadena office move? Ninety days. Older and historic buildings warrant closer to 120.
Why is cabling more expensive in older Pasadena buildings? Plaster walls, no drop ceilings, historic restrictions, and sometimes asbestos. Surface-mounted raceway is often the practical solution.
Can we reuse the existing cabling in the new space? Sometimes, and it’s worth checking. If it’s Cat5e or better and tests clean, reusing it saves substantially. Have it tested rather than assumed.
Does moving a medical practice affect HIPAA compliance? Yes. Device handling in transit, protection of records during the move, and documented destruction of anything left behind all apply.
What if the building is historically designated? There may be restrictions on drilling and alterations, and possibly a review process. Ask the landlord early — this is a schedule item.
Moving your office in Pasadena?
We’re based here, on East Colorado Boulevard. We know the buildings, and we can usually tell you what you’re walking into before we’ve finished the walkthrough.
We’ll assess the new space, plan the cabling and network, coordinate the circuit, and manage the cutover.
WinC Services — 1308 E Colorado Blvd Unit #3130, Pasadena, CA 91106 📞 (213) 855-3506
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