Orange County Performing Arts Center Open House
The Orange County Performing Arts Center is a performing arts complex
located in Costa Mesa, California. It is the home of the Pacific Symphony
Orchestra, Opera Pacific, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and the
Pacific Chorale. It has also served as the host to many touring Broadway
productions, international dance companies and opera troupes.
In 1969 the first group was formed to initiate plans to bring a major
cultural center in Orange County, California. The group, called the Newport
Harbor Foundation conducted studies and determined that Newport Beach would
not be a suitable location for a complex. Three years later in 1972, another
group based in Santa Ana conducted a separate and more extensive survey in
determining a location. The group believed that any major center had to be
located next to freeways for ease of accessibility. Over the next 6 years,
they researched 19 different sites and despite the fact that three made the
short list of potential sites, none were subsequently selected.
It wasn't until February of 1979 when Elaine Redfield, a patron and activist
of the performing arts in the county suggested that an open 5 acre parcel
near the growing shopping center of South Coast Plaza would be a perfect
solution to the location question. The Segerstroms, a strong supporter of
the arts to whom the land belonged to, were impressed by the proposal made
by Redfield. They made their own proposal in offering the land to the Board
of Directors of the performing arts center. The proposal was eventually
accepted on May 15, 1979. Over the course of the next few years, the
Segerstroms donated millions of dollars to the funding of the center.
