Orange County Great Park: The First Great Metropolitan Park of the 21st Century
The former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro is being transformed into the first great metropolitan park of the 21st Century—the Orange County Great Park. Located in the geographic center of Orange County, California, halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, the Great Park is easily accessible to more than 10,000,000 Southern California residents via freeway or railway.
Spanning more than 1,300 acres (nearly twice the size of New York’s Central Park) the Great Park’s award-winning master plan embraces environmental sustainability, preserves Orange County’s agricultural heritage, and honors the military history of the former air base, setting a new standard for sustainable park design and urban planning. Upon completion, the Orange County Great Park will join America’s inventory of national treasures and set a new standard for great metropolitan parks around the world.
Since 2007, Arts Orange County has been an important sounding board for the planners, managers and board of the Orange County Great Park. ArtsOC’s role has also included performing contracted services for the Great Park.
The Orange County Great Park has often pointed to New York’s Central Park and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park as models of its aspirations: vast, lushly landscaped retreats from the urban environment surrounded by ample spaces for recreation and exploration and augmented by carefully selected signature arts facilities gracefully integrated into the overall plan.
The revised Cultural Terrace plan, approved on December 16, 2010, by the Great Park Board, retains the imaginative spirit that guided the original vision for the Park while also seizing upon the potential creative uses of existing elements of the former Marine Corps Air Station-El Toro.
The Great Park Board and Administration have made clear that its artistic programming must be nothing less than world-class, exemplified by two years of outstanding “Flights and Sounds” performances curated by the Irvine Barclay Theatre and by the Park’s ten-year residency agreement with the internationally-acclaimed Cirque du Soleil.
At the same time, the Great Park seeks the highest level of public engagement by offering hands-on, interactive, participatory arts experiences linking the Park to Orange County’s indigenous arts community and to individual artists in the Park’s artist-in-residency program.
