Spotlight Project

The Orange County Great Park | Irvine, CA

Gafcon’s role is to provide the Design Management component of the Great Park Master Plan project.

Gafcon’s Services Consist of:

  • Governance: Defining roles and responsibilities and providing oversight.
  • Management: Planning and administering both projects and the overall program.
  • Financial Management: Implementation of specific fiscal practices and controls.
  • Infrastructure: The program office, technology and other factors in the work environment supporting the program effort.
  • Planning: Activities that take place at multiple levels, with different goals.

 
Description of Spotlight Project: The Orange County Great Park

California currently has four “Great Parks”: San Francisco (Golden Gate Park and The Presidio), San Diego (Balboa Park), and Los Angeles (Griffith Park). Great Parks have improved the lives of their citizens for generations and have also helped to build economic prosperity for their communities. The closure and recent sale of the El Toro Marine Base has provided the city of Irvine a momentous opportunity to build a Great Park of their own.

Gafcon was selected through an international competition of over 47 firms to manage the design of the $1 billion, 1,347-acre Orange County Great Park in Irvine, California. The Great Park will be a major metropolitan park and the focal point of redevelopment of the larger 4,700-acre former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, designated for closure more than a decade ago.

Although currently in the design phase, the Great Park will include extensive natural areas in addition to recreational and cultural uses. It will include the “Great Canyon”, a lake and amphitheater, natural wetlands, Orange County’s largest sports park, an outdoor military aviation museum, and acres of orange groves, orchards and gardens. The remaining 3,700-acre area will be revitalized and will include residential, educational, commercial, and retail uses as well as other supporting facilities.

The first of the public park facilities are anticipated to be open for use within three years, and most major elements will be complete within five years. Ken Smith, award-winning and internationally-recognized, is the landscape architect and master planner.