World-class venue upgrade on schedule

Alicia Robinson

Arts enthusiasts aren’t the only ones anxiously awaiting the

completion of the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. The

business community took an early peek at the new venue on a virtual

tour Friday, and members responded enthusiastically.

“I think it takes the performing arts center just to another new

level, to another new high for the area,” said Ed Fawcett, Costa Mesa

Chamber of Commerce executive director.

The computer-simulated tour of the concert hall was shown at the

annual meeting of the South Coast Metro Alliance, a group of Costa

Mesa and Santa Ana business leaders.

“It’s a godsend,” said Joe De Dio, Costa Mesa Conference and

Visitor Bureau president. “It’ll just make us so much more viable.”

The $200-million, glass-front building will include a 2,000-seat

concert hall and a 500-seat music theater among its 260,000 square

feet. Other features will be a four-level lobby, an education center

and a restaurant.

The concert hall is on budget and on schedule to open in September

2006 as planned, said Jerry Mandel, executive director of the Orange

County Performing Arts Center. Private donations are the sole funding

source for the center. Thus far, $73 million in cash has been

collected, Mandel said.

The first major expansion of the performing arts center since

1986, the new facility will include high-tech amenities such as a

movable canopy and four “sound closets” that can be opened or closed

to adjust the acoustics in the concert hall.

“It’s going to be a marvel of technology when it opens,” said J.

Terry Jones, vice president of development for the performing arts

center.

Also, it will free up the existing center’s halls to bring in more

Broadway shows, dance performances, opera and even pop acts, he said.

With more education space, the center will increase the number of

students it reaches from 300,000 to 500,000 per year, Mandel said.

The opening of the new venue will make the performing arts center

comparable to the new Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Mandel

said.

“Southern California will be the only place in America that will

have two world-class concert halls 40 miles apart,” he said. “It’s

never been done before.”