Performing Arts Center Dedicated in Orange County

Six weeks before its opening, the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s 3,000-seat multipurpose theater in Costa Mesa was dedicated Sunday and given its official name--Segerstrom Hall.

The $70.7-million theater is named after the Segerstrom family, which runs the Costa Mesa-based C. J. Segerstrom & Sons development firm and is the arts center’s chief benefactor.

Sunday’s one-hour, open-air ceremony under the theater’s seven-story portal was marked by one paean after another to the Segerstroms, who not only donated $6 million to the arts center but also gave the center a five-acre site in the family’s South Coast Plaza commercial sector.

Timothy Strader, center board president, praised the “great generosity and vision” of the Segerstroms, whose gifts include the 60-foot-high “Fire Bird” sculpture by Richard Lippold, which will be installed in the next few weeks in the theater’s front entry.

But the most succinct tribute at the ceremony--and the one that brought laughter from the audience of 150--came from Lippold. “They are the Medici of Costa Mesa,” said Lippold, comparing the Segerstroms with the great merchant-prince patrons of 15th Century Florence.

Joy for the Community

Four generations of Segerstroms were represented at the event, led by the family firm’s managing partner, Henry Segerstrom; his mother, Ruth, and his cousin, Harold (Hal) Jr.

“We share this moment of overwhelming joy and accomplishment with the whole community,” said Henry Segerstrom, the firm’s managing partner and also chairman of the arts center’s fund-raising drives.

The theater’s opening Sept. 29 will present the Los Angeles Philharmonic, under the direction of Zubin Mehta, to be followed by such other attractions as the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and New York City Opera.

The arts center is on a section of land that has been in family hands since the 1890s. Most of the farm holdings have since been converted to shopping centers, offices, hotels, residences and other developments in Costa Mesa and Santa Ana.

Private Donations

Under Henry Segerstrom, the arts center’s campaign has brought in more than $65 million in pledges and gifts--all from private donors--for the $70.7-million construction cost of the theater. The center management also hopes to build a second, 1,000-seat, theater by the end of the decade.

The arts center is next to the South Coast Repertory Theatre’s two-playhouse complex, built in 1978 on a two-acre site donated by the Segerstroms. SCR’s 507-seat main playhouse is named Segerstrom Auditorium.