Junette Teng
Research Project 3: Case Study of a Piece
CITY250: Growth & Spatial Organization of American Cities
Prof. Cohen

The Irvine Company: Irvine, CA
“Good Planning Goes a Long Way”

 

"Irvine is different," says Ray Watson, The Irvine Company's first planner and a pioneer in the city's history. "Irvine is not the helpless accumulation of the happenstance of growth in the latter half of the 20th century. Rather, it is the calculated result of, first, vision, then a plan; then a continuum of more planning, design, public input, construction and, ultimately, the fusing of plan, structures and human habitat."

IRVINE COMPANY MISSION STATEMENT



History of the Developers and the Land

Developers are first and foremost agents of change (Garreau 286).

photos from Irvine Ranch Website.  (Shady Canyon)


The Irvine Company is responsible for the development of Irvine, California, which is located in Orange County.  A hundred square miles of land 35 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles was purchased by James Irvine in 1867 and remained in the family until it was sold 110 years later.  Originally a Spanish land-grant ranch, James Irvine, Jr. inherited the land in 1886 and eight years later formed the Irvine Company, which began as a combined citrus grove and cattle-ranch venture.  The reason this property remained in one piece was due to the fact that James Irvine, Jr. willed 54.5% of the Irvine Company to a foundation controlled by life trustees (Garvin 341).  Because of this, the heirs that owned the remaining property could not sell.  In the 1950s, the pressure to develop the land was increased by continually rising real estate taxes.    At this point Orange County’s postwar population was 200,000, but would rapidly increase to more than 2 million by 1987 (Kling 2).  This area was an attractive speculation from the beginning because of its ideal climate, proximity to Los Angeles, and its rural landscape.   

 
 
The Plan for Utopian Suburbia

Postsuburban spatial organization is no accident.  It is the result of complex and weakly coordinated sets of conscious decisions by private entrepreneurs and many politicians who reflect their interests (Kling 10).



map from City of Irvine Website

In the mid 1960's The Irvine Company began planning the Central Area General Plan, which later became the City of Irvine.  During the planning process, there were many different ideas for the layout of the area.  In the end, the company opted for a “linear structure” (Harris).  The residential portion of the development took the form of distinct planned villages with their own schools, parks, and commercial areas. Instead of selling off parts of the land to different developers, the Irvine Company decided to build an entirely new town.

Irvine Ranch Residential Map

The plan was to create the utopian suburb, pulling immigrants who either previously lived and worked in Los Angeles and were in search for more space and less expensive housing, or anyone who sought the easy-going outdoor life year round.  The image of modern housing, rural open space, high-quality schools, superb amenities, and the temperate climate painted a vivid picture of a trouble-free, healthy life for families, that served, and continually serves as a “powerful magnet” (Kling).  “Suburbia from the 1920s through World War II tended to be white, middle class, family oriented, and socially homogeneous.  Land-use patterns were low density, nonindustrial, and primarily residential (Baldassare 46-47).”  Irvine is no longer the case of typical suburbia.  It has created a strain of wealthy upper-middle class residents with a large affluent Asian population.  Reasons for this are uncertain, but in the past decade, Irvine has seen an influx of Asian families seeking a reputable education system, luxurious homes, and        the utopian lifestyle.  “Orange County, with Irvine at its heart, has become a new kind of place—not a conventional city, not a conventional suburb, but possessing the attributes of both (Goldberger).”  Like no other city planned before, the Irvine Company looked to Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City concept and New Jersey’s Levittown as inspirations, but did not directly emulate.  Its specialized residential, commercial, and industrial zones make it difficult for pedestrians to navigate.  This city was planned for a car culture that was already devouring Los Angeles and the rest of Southern California.  During the planning phases, the Irvine Company’s visions of the future often clashed with those of the city and county planning officials who were concerned with the over dependence on the automobile as well as housing for low-income and moderate-income workers and their families.  The city has come to be characterized as middle or upper-middle class, though it may have begun as a cheaper alternative to city living.  Houses in Irvine begin in the mid $200,000 range and continue on up into the $800,000 range.  Generally speaking, Orange County as a whole is becoming more affluent, and the middle-class is slowly being pushed out into the deserts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. 

<Maps from Mapquest and Irvine Company Website>


As time wore on, the Irvine Company was eager to push development on the rest of their land holdings, but was faced with controversy.  They finally agreed to donate approximately 75% of the land for parks and open space in exchange for being able to build a few thousand homes and hotels.  The developer learned to use this as a point of appeal:       

More than half of the historic 93,000-acre Irvine Ranch® will be forever protected as open space and for recreational use.  In this single fact, you begin to appreciate what life on The Irvine Ranch holds in store.  And to value what has not been built as much as what has. 
For over a century, from the 1897 dedication of Irvine Regional Park to the 11,000-acre North Ranch Land Gift, the quiet majesty of canyons, coastlines, trails and wetlands continue to grace the land and enrich people’s lives.

                                                                                         -Taken from Irvine Ranch Website

“I don’t think we thought of ourselves as building cities,” said Tom Nielsen, vice chairman of the Irvine Company, “There was no vision that we were building a city for tomorrow.  We were doing a better job of suburbanizing Southern California and trying to take the conflicts out of traffic patterns (Garreau 295).” 
In Irvine, organized land uses separate the homes from businesses. Quiet residential neighborhoods and dynamic business districts are close together, but buffered from each other. The Irvine Plan takes much pride in its transportation network. Unlike typical American cities that are heavily gridded in their road systems, Irvine strayed away from that because such grids often impact local neighborhoods. Irvine's road system carries higher speed and high-capacity cross-town traffic around residential areas, not through them. From the start, roads were designed to be modified to handle increasing traffic from economic and residential growth anticipated in the city's general plan, including the influences of regional traffic.


Architecture

                                           
photo from Recent Terrains

In regards to the architecture of the residential communities, there is a vernacular that exists.  Expected of suburbia, one is faced with rows upon rows of identical houses clustered together, creating a homogeneous landscape.  Single-family homes open onto private patios not onto streets, and the porch is nowhere to be found.  In more affluent neighborhoods, houses are walled off from the street with enclosed front courtyards and limited entryways.  Such residential designs turn people inward towards their private spaces and discourage neighborhood interaction. Walled communities also become a definer of social strata.  Those within the walls are part of the homogeneity that appeals to the consumer.  There is a feeling of safety and comfort knowing that your neighbors are of the same economic status and have the same ideals as you.  Residence in Irvine varies from single-family houses, condominiums, to semi-detached housing.  The Irvine Ranch Website emphasizes “architecturally distinctive villages” within its community.  In actuality, these residences all share a vernacular suburban appearance that provides the visual homogeneity that makes it typical rather than “distinctive.”  Why do the houses appear the same?  Because the cheapest way to create new homes is to build the same thing over and over again with prefabricated parts, saving time and money, resulting in greater profitability for the developer.  A community like Irvine, may shock those from other parts of the country, with street after street of the same house multiplied, but it is only because they are unaccustomed to this type of built form.  Instead their cities are filled with the concrete apartment blocks composed of brick façade.  California has created its own architectural vernacular for suburbs, with its Spanish influenced design and clean white stucco walls. 
  

     

photos from Irvine Ranch Website

Some Demographics

Population:
2001 Population    
2000 Population   
1998 Population   
1996 Population   
1990 Population   
1980 Population   
1971 Population    		148,000
143,072
129,294
127,200
110,330
62,134
14,231


 
Age Distribution    
Under 15 years
    15-24 years
    25-34 years
    35-44 years
    45-59 years
    60-64 years
    65+ years
 19.3%
18.6%
15.0%
17.3%
19.5%
3.0%
7.2%
Median Age 33.4


College Degree:               40%

Ethnicity:
White
Asian & Pacific Islander
Hispanic
Black
Other
   57%
29.8%
7.4%
1.4%
4.4%


  Income:
Under $14,999
$15,000 - 24,999
$25,000 - 34,999
$35,000 - 49,999
$50,000 - 74,999
$75,000 - 99,999
Over $100,000
8.0%
6.5%
9.1%
14.8%
22.4%
15.6%
23.6%
Per Capita
Household
 $29,163
$62,469

Housing:
Housing Units
    Single Units
    Multi-Family
    Seniors and Congregate Care
    Mobile Home
Median Value
Owners
Renters
Average Rent
 53,711
40.0%
56.0%
3.98%
.02%
$356,000
60.0%
40.0%
$1,400




Households:
Total
    Average Size
    Households w/Children
Marital Status
    Married
    Single, Never Married
    Divorced, Separated, Widowed
 51,199
2.62
37.5%
 
69.6%
25.9%
11.3%


  Employment:
Total In-City Businesses
Commercial Businesses
Home Occupation
Total Estimated Employment
Unemployment Rate
 9,813
7493
2320
168,000
3.7%

Demographics taken from City of Irvine Website

 


The freeway (the 405 San Diego Freeway) is an integral part of the Irvine Community as it connects this community to the rest of the Southern California region.

<photos from Mapquest and History of Orange County Website>


Conclusion

Irvine continues today to be a bustling community inhabited by the middle and upper-middle class and appears to have succeeded despite worries of car dependency and unaffordable housing for lower-income groups.  The city has constructed an image of a perfect society complete with good schools, low crime, healthy living, parks and open space.  All these things continue to appeal to consumers.  Those of lower-income have accepted that Irvine is not a livable place for them and tend to settle in other regions of Orange County or in surrounding counties.  The Irvine Company continues to develop shopping centers and business complexes in the area to supplement this utopian community.  It has succeeded as they had intended, aside from the original effort to make housing affordable to all incomes, but the city planners from the beginning predicted this drawback.  Apparently, the Irvine Company sees no reason why Irvine cannot be a middle-class community.   Over time, as the city becomes more popular, land values may increase, resulting in the shift of lesser-incomed residents out of the city, one-by-one till Irvine becomes an elite community similar to that of Newport Beach or Beverly Hills.  It is interesting to note the possibility of such change, for one would never think that suburbia could go from being the affordable option to strictly elite.  It is the Irvine Company that is responsible for the shape the community of Irvine has taken.  Through their private speculation and planning, they were able to construct a sustainable city that will continue to thrive for many more years.   

Promotional Videos from the Irvine Company


Bibliography

Baldassare, Mark.  Trouble in Paradise: The Suburban Transformation in America.  New York: Columbia University Press, 1986. 

Brown, Laurie.  Recent Terrains: Terraforming the American West.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.

Garreau, Joel.  Edge City: Life on the New Frontier.  New York: Doubleday Publishing, 1991.  pp. 262-301.

Garvin, Alexander.  The American City: What Works, What Doesn’t.  New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1996.  pp. 341-343.

Eds. Kling, Robert, Spencer Olin, Mark Poster.  Postsuburban California: The Transformation of Orange County Since World War II.  Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991. 

Goldberger, Paul.  “Orange County: Tomorrowland—Wall to Wall.”  New York Times, 11 Dec. 1988.

Kao, Kenneth.  “History of Orange County, California.” Updated 19 April 2002.  < http://members.aol.com/kennykao/ochistindex.html >.  Cited 22 April 2002.

The James Irvine Foundation Website. http://www.irvine.org/about_irvine/mission.htm. 

The Irvine Company Website.  http://www.irvinecompany.com/index.asp. 

The Irvine Ranch Website.  http://www.irvineranch.com/index.asp .

OCThen Website.  John Harris.  http://www.octhen.com/cities/ir/peoplemover.htm .

The City of Irvine Website.  http://www.cityofirvine.org/