South Coast Plaza and The Arts 

It’s impossible to tell the story of South Coast Plaza without also telling the story of the Segerstrom family’s commitment to the arts. In the six decades since the shopping center’s debut, the family has also been a driving force in the development of public, visual, and the performing arts in Costa Mesa, California, transforming the city into the cultural capital of Orange County and a must-see destination in Southern California accessible to locals and visitors from around the world.

Across the street and to the east of South Coast Plaza is where you’ll find the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, a 14-acre campus encompassing the Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory Theatre, marquee performing arts venue Segerstrom Hall, Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Samueli Theater and UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art. The broader area, known as the Costa Mesa Arts District, also includes internationally renowned public art and sculptures commissioned by the Segerstrom family along with prized works acquired from some of the world’s best-known artists.

 

 

In 1973, David Emmes and Martin Benson, founders of the avant-garde theater troupe South Coast Repertory Theatre, approached the Segerstrom family about moving from Newport Beach to the more centralized location of Costa Mesa. United in their conviction that the arts were indispensable to any major metropolitan development and that cultural activities were a key ingredient of successful urban planning, the family donated land just off Bristol Street and contributed to the $3.5 million campaign to relocate the theater and build its new home, which debuted in 1978 and later expanded in 2002.

In 1982, with the first component complete, the family set out to create an unparalleled collection of public art, beginning with the commission of California Scenario, a landmark 16-acre sculpture garden by Los Angeles-born Japanese sculptor Isamu Noguchi. A physical abstraction of California, it represents our water source, water use, land use, and geographical elements of the Golden state from redwood forests to the desert.

Around the same time, Henry Segerstrom hired esteemed art consultant Tamara Thomas to help build a world-class collection of sculpture that would weave through the developing arts district. Among them were family commissions by Richard Lippold (Firebird, which pierces through the soaring arch of Segerstrom Hall) and Claire Falkenstein (Sun Ribbon). In addition, works by Joan Miro, Jean Dubuffet, George Rickey and Henry Moore, to name a few, were acquired and found a new home in Costa Mesa. The white marble sculpture Fermi by Tony Smith, one of only two such works by the late artist, was even loaned to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) for a retrospective in 1998.

 

 

With momentum strong, the cultural champions of Orange County who had sought to build a world-class performance hall for three decades approached the family (led by Ruth Segerstrom and her son Henry and Harold Segerstrom and his son Hal), who donated five acres of land and $1 million to the effort. Henry became the founding chairman of the new Orange County Performing Arts Center and led the $70 million fundraising campaign to build Segerstrom Hall, which opened in 1986 to great fanfare, becoming a mecca for international dance and boasting American Ballet Theater as its resident dance company.

Based on the success of Segerstrom Hall, a second venue, dedicated to symphony and designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Cesar Pelli and legendary acoustician Russell Johnson, was built in 2006. Land was again given by South Coast Plaza and Henry Segerstrom made a gift of $50 million to seed what turned out to be a $100 million-plus project. Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall is home to the Pacific Symphony, the Pacific Chorale and the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, with the Samueli Theater built next to it.

 

 

That same year, Henry and his wife Elizabeth commissioned the 65-foot-tall Connector by Richard Serra, and five years later in 2011, the complex once known as Orange County Performing Arts Center was renamed Segerstrom Center for the Arts to honor its 25th anniversary and the family’s ongoing commitment to artistry and creativity.

In the latest chapter of the story, the family donated land to relocate the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) to the cultural campus in a building designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne. The project broke ground in 2019 and opened in 2022, with free admission for all. In 2025, University of California Irvine and OCMA merged into one entity, now known as UC Irvine Langson OCMA.

 

   
Segerstrom Center for the Arts is not only a symbol of South Coast Plaza’s creative patronage, it has become a seamless part of Orange County and Southern California’s cultural landscape, representing the Segerstrom family’s ongoing creative collaborations with architects, arts organizations, artists and a community of philanthropists and patrons.

Perhaps most importantly, anyone can experience world-class visual and performing arts here–it is open to all, a hidden secret no longer. We invite you to plan your visit and spend the day with us shopping, dining and enjoying the arts both inside and outside, day and night.