Note from Storm: This 2009 article describes the proposed conversion of the El Toro Marine Air Station in Orange County, California into the Orange County Great Park. This on-again, off-again project received much press–and many modifications–over the intervening years.
Readers of this journal are invited to comment below on the current state of affairs.
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One of the nation’s most ambitious new parks got a green light last month. The board of the Orange County Great Park approved $65.5 million in new construction, setting the stage for the first complete swath of what will eventually become a 1,347-acre public space—and a model for how to integrate recreation, ecological restoration, and urban agriculture in the 21st century.
The October 22, 2009 announcement marks a milestone for the project, which has been in the works for more than a decade as part of a bid to reinvent Irvine’s former El Toro marine air station, which closed in 1999. The park was born after developer Lennar Corporation purchased the former base at auction, and transferred the park parcel to the city of Irvine as the core of a planned 4,700-acre, mixed-use development.
The immense scope of the project—it includes an entire canyon carved from scratch—makes the present phase seem almost slight by comparison.
“While $65 million is a lot of money, it’s a small piece of the billion or billion-and-a-half dollar project,” said Ken Smith, the landscape architect who leads the Great Park Design Studio. “So the issue we’ve been struggling with is, do you build a smaller area to full detail and amenity, or do you try to stretch the money out over a large area with less detail?”
In the end, designers opted for a compromise targeting 200 acres, fewer than initially planned, but with more robust amenities, set for completion by 2011.