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Curtain up on Segerstrom Center's next act: Julianne & George Argyros Plaza & Center for Dance Innovation

The community, project team members, and city officials gathered at the Segerstrom Arts Plaza in Costa Mesa on Saturday, October 28th for an all-day grand opening celebration of the Julianne and George Argyros Plaza and Center for Dance and Innovation. Located between Segerstrom Hall and Segerstrom Concert Hall, the $15M, 56,100 square-foot plaza is dedicated to making the arts accessible to the community. The Argyros Plaza includes a 60-foot-wide fountain, and a large public stage intended to display a wide range of performing arts programs.

The day was filled with family-friendly fun: Patriots Marching Band Ensemble, Taiko Project drummers, the Darden Sisters Band, Ane Thanh Lion Dance, Vybration a cappella sextet, Los 440’s band, Orange County’s gay men’s chorus MenAlive, Culture Clash LA dance troop and Puppets and Players Little Theatre. Caricature artists, trick-or-treating and face painting added to the festive mood. Pacific Symphony, Philharmonic Society of Orange County and Pacific Chorale joined the celebrations, as did South Coast Repertory and Orange County Museum of Art. The plaza’s new café, Center 360, was open to serve guests. Visitors were invited to take free docent-led tours of the plaza and theaters and to observe classes in the Center’s School of Dance and Music for Children with Disabilities and the American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie School.

Donors Julianne and George Argyros attended as well as Segerstrom President Terry Dwyer and Mayor Katrina Foley. Foley said she is proud to be mayor at a time when places like the Segerstrom Center are fulfilling and embracing Costa Mesa’s reputation as the “City of the Arts.”

As the general contractor, Pankow’s scope of work included new construction of the Arts Plaza with plaza pavers, a water feature, outdoor stage, a new two-story exterior circular stairway, elevated walkway, and patio and café space between the second level entrance to Segerstrom Hall. A steel pedestrian bridge was constructed to connect to the existing Judy Morr Theater where the Center for Dance Innovation is located. More than 3 miles of conduit, 94 tons of steel, 213 pallets of pavers, 900 linear feet of LED lighting and 106 plaza ground lights were used in the construction. The Arts Plaza adds to the impressive portfolio of public work Pankow has recently completed, including the Ford Theater, iconic Herbst Theater and the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center Building, and preconstruction for the educational spaces at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Learn more about the project: https://www.scfta.org/scfta/media/General/Press/Argyros-Plaza-CDI-Opening-Celebration.pdf

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