Foundations of the County to Be

The construction crane, a rare sight in Orange County in the mid-1990s, is again leaving its mark on the landscape.

There is expansion at Disneyland, development of raw land into home sites at Newport Coast, and construction of commercial buildings seemingly everywhere. Interstate 5 is being widened, the Anaheim Convention Center is growing, and new entertainment centers, like the Block in Orange and the Irvine Spectrum, have additional development still to come.

More homes and more industrial and office buildings have received approval to be built this year than in a decade, according to the Construction Industry Research Board, a Burbank-based real estate research firm.

As the population draws closer to 3 million, bolstered by corporate hiring needs, both northern and southern stretches of the county are being reshaped: In the south, land is being developed; in the north, older areas are being redeveloped.

And when the cranes and earthmovers move on, the changes will be, in many cases, dramatic--and will mark the area for decades to come.