BUILDING A Masterpiece
ORANGE COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART PREPARES TO REOPEN THIS FALL IN ITS BRAND-NEW HOME AT SEGERSTROM CENTER FOR THE ARTS .
BY SHARON STELLO
LEFT : JOSHUA WHITE ; INSET : MORPHOSIS
After being closed for more than two years , the Orange County Museum of Art is poised to finally reopen this fall in a brand-new building at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa . Designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize-winner Thom Mayne of Morphosis , the structure is considered the final piece in the buildout of this arts campus , which already includes three theaters , a concert hall , ballet school and more .
“ I think the proximity of visual and performing arts within steps of each other is unprecedented in the U . S . and almost anywhere in the world ,” says OCMA Director and CEO Heidi Zuckerman . Previously the director of Aspen Art Museum , Zuckerman came to lead the Orange County museum during its pandemic-era closure and has been patiently waiting for the new building to open .
“ The idea of being able to bring an incredible cultural experience to this community is such a privilege and an honor ,” she says .
Admission will be free for the first decade , thanks to a generous donation from Newport Beach-based Lugano Diamonds . And a 24-hour grand opening is set for Oct . 8 starting at 5 p . m . with art workshops , film screenings , performances by the Pacific Chorale and more . In the coming months — with some programs not starting until early next year — the museum will begin to regularly host artist lectures and panel discussions , school tours and camps for kids , art-making sessions for adults and yoga on the roof deck as well as film and music presentations .
The 53,000-square-foot building doubles the size of the museum ’ s former location in Newport — the city where this institution began 60 years ago , in 1962 , first as the Balboa Pavilion Gallery and then the Newport Harbor Art Museum before assuming its current moniker , OCMA . From fall 2018 until closing due to the pandemic in 2020 , the museum was housed in a temporary location at South Coast Plaza Village in Santa Ana .
With more than 4,500 works in its collection — including 80 ( surpassing its goal of 60 ) added in honor of its anniversary this year — OCMA focuses on modern and contemporary pieces mostly by artists living in California . The institution has aimed to present and preserve groundbreaking artwork created in the Golden State with major holdings representing early and mid-century modernism , Bay Area figuration , assemblage , the California light and space movement , pop art , minimalism and installation art .
MODERN MUSEUM Looking across the front of the museum , its profile undulates in a seemingly continuous — but perhaps more modern — set of curves from the Reneé and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall next door . OCMA ’ s facade is covered with white terra cotta tiles , each weighing 70 pounds and requiring two people to install in the specific place it was crafted to fit .
“ One of the things that ’ s cool about the terra cotta is that it ’ s outside , then it ’ s inside and then it comes back outside again ,” Zuckerman says , adding that , on one of the upper levels , “ you get up close and personal with the terra cotta — you can touch it .”
Among the building ’ s iconic elements are these tiles and two cantilevers , including one that houses the educational pavilion and another that serves as a planter on the rooftop terrace and the end of a “ window gallery ” that juts out from the main structure . A grand staircase that winds through the building is fashioned after the steps of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City . Those who don ’ t take the stairs can ride up in an
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