A Pillar of Shiny Steel : A tour of the new metal and marble Plaza Tower near the Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa is proudly conducted by its internationally known architect Cesar Pelli.

“Come in, because it feels quite wonderful inside.”

Architect Cesar Pelli, leading a tour of the new Plaza Tower office building in Costa Mesa, ushered his followers into one of the tower’s lacewood-paneled elevators--not to go anywhere, just to appreciate the design.

The internationally known architect’s first project in Orange County was given an official christening Wednesday, although major tenant and part-owner International Business Machines began moving into the building last month. With the continuing local and national slump in commercial real estate construction, Plaza Tower will likely be the last office complex in the county for at least two years, some observers say.

Pelli, born in Argentina, has designed such buildings as the 777 Tower at Citicorp Plaza in Los Angeles, the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, and the expansion of the Museum of Modern Art and the World Financial Center, both in New York City. On the boards: the 125-story Miglin-Beitler Tower in Chicago, which would be the world’s tallest building. The Sears Tower, also in Chicago, is now the tallest at 110 stories.

In a lecture Tuesday night at Plaza Tower and during tours of the building, Pelli emphasized that he is a detail-oriented architect who is involved in all aspects of his projects. He illustrated the point when he discussed the red marble used in the building’s lobby.

Pelli first saw the marble used in an ashtray, then spent quite a bit of time tracking its origin. The quarry where it was mined, he discovered, had been closed for 60 years, but Pelli persuaded the owner--”after several Vermouth conversations”--to reopen it.

The tower’s most striking detail is its stainless steel surface. The western face of the building is a broad curve which reflects the sunset.

“It was an early decision to use stainless steel,” Pelli said. The reflections are diffused by an almost invisible pattern stamped onto the panels, eliminating hot spots in the reflection and creating a “warm” and “lively” feeling. “The curve is always alive,” Pelli said, “and buildings, like people, need to be alive.”

Pelli used stainless steel as an exterior surface in a previous project, at Canary Wharf in London, but Plaza Tower is Orange County’s first stainless steel-clad office building. The use of the metal, which is about 20% more expensive than other materials, according to Pelli, as an exterior surface is rare.

Its use in this project was “considerably more difficult and complicated than I imagined,” Pelli said. Even slight variations in the production of the steel panels, which were produced in Germany, “affect the way the material reflects the light,” the architect explained. “The slightest stress creates dimples that are highly visible. It requires an enormous amount of control.”

Another aspect of the project that Pelli insisted on is the separation of the parking garage from the tower. Pelli wanted to create a pedestrian plaza that takes in a view of the nearby Orange County Performing Arts Center.

“The automatic, knee-jerk reaction of a developer” is to attach building and garage, but in this case, “an important experience would have been missed for the workers.” The resulting plaza adds “about 30 steps” to the walk for employees in the building, but Pelli called them “30 wonderful steps.”

Pelli said that with the completion of Plaza Tower, the Town Center area--which includes the South Coast Plaza shopping mall, the Orange County Performing Arts Center, South Coast Repertory, and several hotels and office buildings--is fast becoming a “focus” for sprawling Orange County.

With the continuing recession, however, Plaza Tower is opening at only 41% occupancy. The county’s average vacancy rate is about 23%.

Pelli’s firm, based in New Haven, Conn., designed Plaza Tower in conjunction with the Irvine office of CRSS Architects. The project, with a reported price tag of about $110 million, was a joint venture of IBM and an affiliate of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons.

Plaza Tower

Designers: Cesar Pelli & Associates, CRSS Architects

Owners: IBM, Three Town Center (an affiliate of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons)

Height: 21 stories

Size: 475,000 square feet

Parking garage: 1,500 spaces, with an additional 12,000 square feet of retail and office space

Cost: Estimated at $110 million.