Showcasing the Ranch

Paul Clinton

As a glossy tribute to the land that made many things possible, Irvine

Co. CEO Donald Bren published an arty picture book earlier this year.

“Irvine Ranch: Different by Design, images 1960-2000” lays out images

from 40 years of urban master planning.

There’s a smoky, fire-red shot of Newport Harbor at sunset. The

quietly deserted Student Center at UCI sits solidly among a lush lawn in

one image. Morning sun hits The Castaways community on the Back Bay in

another shot.

All these areas and more make up the ranch, which James Irvine and two

partners purchased in 1864 from Spanish and Mexican land grants.

“It’s a beautiful book,” Joan Irvine Smith said about the pictorial

chronicle of land owned by her relatives.

Once as big as 120,000 acres, the modern ranch clocks in at 93,000

acres -- stretching from Mountain Park in Anaheim to Cameo Shores in

Corona del Mar.

It crosses the boundaries of six different cities, including Newport

Beach, but not Costa Mesa.

Many of Newport Beach’s toniest neighborhoods were developed via the

company’s technique of selling plots of land to developers for planned

communities -- Spyglass Hill, Ford and Big Canyon. The company’s latest

development can be seen overlooking the ocean in the community of Newport

Coast.

The book notes the pivotal roles of the company’s early master

planners, William Pereira and Ray Watson, crediting them with developing

a long-term plan to handle the influx of people into Orange County.

“The people would have come whether we had planned for their arrival

or not,” says Watson, a company president from 1973-77. “We chose to

plan.”

Proceeds from the sale of the book, according to a cover note, will be

used to “fund the enhancement of existing natural resources on lands

designated for permanent preservation.”

This money would be separate from the $30 million the company has

already said it would set aside to maintain vast sections of parkland.

* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

paul.clinton@latimes.comf7 .