LOOKING BACK

Young Chang

With the Yard House upstairs, Whole Foods Market in the basement,

musical groups playing on a dais on the terrace and three busy streets

bordering its three sides, Triangle Square is the non-South-Coast-Plaza

hub of downtown Costa Mesa.

Built in 1991, the project redeveloped what was previously just a

cluster of little businesses. There were a couple of dentists,

electronics shops, a huge parking lot in the middle and just a

“hodgepodge” of services, remembers Dave Gardner, president of the Costa

Mesa Historical Society and a longtime resident of the city.

Former mayor Peter Buffa remembers how different that strip of Newport

Boulevard was.

“I got to Costa Mesa in 1974, and what was considered downtown Costa

Mesa at the time was pretty much on the downhill slide,” he said. “It

just was not an area that people liked to go to. It was kind of dark, not

very welcoming.”

The 200,000-sq.-foot space was built as a three story structure with a

Mediterranean-style of architecture. The land, of course, is triangular,

which explains the name Triangle Square (Buffa adds that he’s always

considered it to be almost the town square.)

Edwards Cinema opened first in June of 1992. During the next 17

months, other stores opened. Business in the downtown area of the city

improved.

“You could see that whole drama play out,” Buffa said. “You could see

that kinda moving up and down Newport Boulevard, with Triangle Square as

the center.”

In 1993, the structure was named the winner of the state chapter of

the American Planning Assn. for planning design.

Today, occupants of the complex include Johnny Rockets, Whole Foods,

the cinema, Barnes & Nobles Booksellers, the Yard House, Virgin Records

and Color Me Mine.

“It’s nice to see something like that. It works, from a political

standpoint and that did what it was supposed to do,” Buffa said of

Triangle Square’s effect on the city. “It was supposed to kick off this

Renaissance rebirth of the downtown area.”

* Do you know of a person, place or event that deserves a historical

Look Back? Let us know. Contact Young Chang by fax at (949) 646-4170;

e-mail at young.chang@latimes.com; or mail her at c/o Daily Pilot, 330 W.

Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627.