Expanding Upon the Ideas Put Forth for Orange County Center

Architecture should evoke strong opinions, and I respect the right of critics to “call them as they see them.” But Nicolai Ouroussoff’s review of the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s new Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall errs on several points--some unrelated to architecture (“Concert Hall Design Misses the High Notes,” Oct. 30).

In his critique, Ouroussoff states that the new venue, designed by renowned architect Cesar Pelli, has a “conventional, unimaginative design.” He derides our new concert hall for being less visually exciting than the Disney Hall, “to which it will be inevitably compared.” He does concede that the alleged flaws “will be forgiven ... if the performances sound good,” and that “acoustically, the hall may turn out to be grander than its architecture.”

Making performances “sound good” is precisely the point of a concert hall. Our primary goal in designing the new facility is to provide a superb acoustical and visual environment for artists and audiences. We are very proud of our existing 3,000-seat Segerstrom Hall; it has been praised by international performing arts writers, and ranked by performers as being among the finest in the world. This new hall, too, promises to be exceptional.

Pelli and his associates have worked hand-in-hand with Russell Johnson of ARTEC, one of the world’s leading acousticians. Johnson’s designs for such halls as the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, the Culture and Congress Center in Lucerne, Switzerland, and Symphony Hall in Birmingham, England, have set a standard against which others are now judged. We feel that the new facility will be architecturally stunning and will satisfy the greatest performing artists and most discerning audiences, as the current hall does.

Ouroussoff further states that the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s location is “in a suburban office park.” This seems to reflect his bias in favor of traditional “downtown” environments. True, the major cultural institutions of most large cosmopolitan areas are in the heart of their downtown districts. Orange County has its own unique geographical character. And anyone who has visited the area in which the center is located knows it is situated among thriving major hotels, fine restaurants, upscale retail establishments, office towers and residential complexes--creating an ideal setting for a performing arts center.

To set the record straight about Ouroussoff’s remark that the center’s resident companies “lack big-city stature,” the center, these organizations and the artists and companies who appear here receive outstanding reviews, including those by his colleagues at The Times. On their tours, world-renowned performers include the center alongside Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and other international cultural capitals. In the past few seasons alone, the roster of artists and companies that have performed here includes Cecilia Bartoli, Denyce Graves, Kathleen Battle, Paris Opera Ballet, La Scala Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, the National Ballet of Cuba, the Berlin, Vienna and New York philharmonic orchestras, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Leif Ove Andsnes, Joshua Bell, Diana Krall, Dave Brubeck and Joshua Redman.

All of us who love the Orange County Performing Arts Center applaud and wish the best for our colleagues at Disney Hall. Any effort to enhance our communities by creating cultural opportunities should be encouraged and helped to succeed. When these two great concert halls are completed, Southern California will be in a unique position of having two extraordinary venues in which to enjoy beautiful music. We agree that the two centers will be compared--but that they will be seen as complementary, helping secure a strong musical life in both communities for many future generations.