The Seven Wonders of Orange County
She wrote the book on West Coast style, so who better
than this Arbiter of Cool to pick the county’s hot spots?
Elizabeth Armstrong, chief curator of the Orange County Museum of Art, edited “Birth of the Cool: Calif . . .ornia Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury,” a stylishly illustrated coffee-table book that explores 1950s West Coast cool and how period icons, such as Chet Baker, Richard Neutra, and Charles and Ray Eames, influenced today’s contemporary art and culture. In May, the Association of Art Museum Curators awarded the book its annual Publication Prize. We asked Armstrong to identify cool Orange County wonders; she chose the following seven.—Chris Christensen
1. Crystal Cathedral
The largest glass building in the world, the cathedral was commissioned by the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, pastor of California’s first drive-in church, in Garden Grove. Building of the 128-foot-high structure began in 1977 and it opened in 1980, with internationally renowned architect Philip Johnson designing the main sanctuary. Richard Neutra and Richard Meier later designed other buildings on the site, and our thanks go to Schuller for bringing some of the country’s best architects to Orange County. 12141 Lewis St., Garden Grove, 714-971-4000. www.crystalcathedral.net.
2. Lovell Beach House
Rudolf M. Schindler’s 1926 modernist home in Newport Beach was commissioned by Philip Lovell, a successful naturopath who championed vegetarianism, nude sunbathing, and a healthy sex life in his Sunday Los Angeles Times column, “Care of the Body.” This startling house, which rises over the boardwalk on massive concrete stilts, provides spectacular views while assuring privacy. Schindler designed it on a skeletal system that would withstand earthquakes. Although cost overruns, flooding balconies, and Lovell’s concern that the architect was chasing his wife cast a temporary pall on the project, it is recognized today as one of the masterworks of modernist architecture, and perhaps Schindler’s finest residence. 1242 Ocean Ave., Newport Beach.
3. California Scenario
Isamu Noguchi’s meditative sculpture garden is one of Henry Segerstrom’s great gifts to Orange County. Casually nestled between several high-rise office buildings in Costa Mesa, this urban oasis reflects the state’s topography from the High Sierra to the Southwest deserts, in a multifaceted environment composed of stones, plants, and water. Considering the anonymity of its office-park setting just off the 405 Freeway, it’s striking to come across this landmark of landscape design—one of this great modern artist’s last works. Even casual visitors can feel an undeniable energy in this Zen-like place. South Coast Plaza Town Center, 611 Anton Blvd., Costa Mesa.
4. Pageant of the Masters
Artist and vaudevillian Lolita Perine started it all in 1932 when she re-created master artworks by dressing residents in period costumes and seating them behind lifesize “picture frames.” Every summer, audiences pack the Irvine Bowl in Laguna Beach to see the show. So beloved is this event for the incredible realism of these “living pictures”—and for its level of high kitsch, depending on your point of view—that when an attempt was made in 2000 to move the pageant to San Clemente, it was met with widespread resistance. Today, the 75-year-old tradition seems securely rooted in its location in the city’s beautiful hills. 650 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach, 949-494-1145. www.foapom.com.
5. Orange County Great Park
If this idea, mired in snags since its inception, ever gets off the ground, it will transform the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station into one of the nation’s largest metropolitan parks—with approximately 1,350 acres. An important element of the plan is to link many already-preserved lands into a continuous open-space-and-wildlife corridor that will stretch from the Cleveland National Forest, through the Great Park, Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, Crystal Cove State Park, and finally, all the way to the Pacific Ocean. www.ocgp.org.
6. Orange County, China
In the late 1990s, a Beijing developer hired Orange County architects and interior designers to create an “authentic” American-style gated community near the site of the 2008 Olympics. Designed by a trio of O.C. design firms, headed by Bassenian Lagoni Architects, all 143 units of the expensive (half-million-dollar price tags and up), townhouse-style suburban development were sold within a month in a phenomenon the Beijing media called “The Orange Storm.” As China’s newly rich aspire to an imported American lifestyle, complete with fake lakes and SUVs in the driveway, critics ask if they are doomed to repeat the worst mistakes of America’s environmental neglect and urban sprawl.
7. Tustin MCAS Hangars
The two huge hangars were built in 1942 as part of the Santa Ana Naval Air Station to house as many as six blimps each; each hangar is more than 1,000 feet long, 300 feet wide, and 18 stories high—and rumored to have its own weather. At the time of construction they were—and still are—the world’s largest clear-span wooden buildings. They were later transferred to the Marine Corps, and, in 1993, were designated National Civil Engineering Landmarks by the American Society of Civil Engineers. After years of conversations and public hearings about their final disposition, their future is still being explored—with possibilities ranging from a sports-entertainment complex, to demolition (which would not be cool). www.militarymuseum.org/MCASTustin.html.