A diverse consortium of architects has been announced for a massive new development called Cultural Terrace on the site of the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Irvine, California led by IBI Group and MVRDV.

The firms will be joined by landscape architects Agency Artifact and the local women-run studio MAAM, with engineers from Buro Happold and Ryder Levett Bucknall serving in a consulting role. 

The 4,682-acre base was once home to Major League Baseball great Ted Williams, who was a Marine Corps aviator from 1943 until the end of the Korean War. The government deactivated El Toro in 1999, and it has since been converted into a popular TV and film location, as well as a fledgling public park, which the new development hopes to reinvigorate.

Exact uses for the Cultural Terrace are still being determined, but the 110-acre parcel of the Great Park may evolve in time to play host to a museum, library and event spaces, a (possible) Indigenous history center, or even offices of the city and other entities within Orange County. Two large extant hangars and another 40,000-square-foot warehouse will make up the centerpiece of the adaptive reuse scheme. An undefined series of workshops will also feature prominently in the program that will help improve the broader community.

The team is also optimistic that the refurbishment project will engender a newfound innovation hub for the many technical and creative enterprises in the greater Irvine area in a way that will “apply the ingenuity and aspirations of those engineers and aviators who worked on this base towards a whole new set of cultural opportunities.”

The plan comes after years of local back-and-forth over the future of the former military base. Chris Torres of Agency Artifact noted the site’s ”important history in Orange County” and says it is now “ready to be transformed into a dynamic public space for Irvine in the 21st century.” No construction timelines were available at press time. Archinect will have more updates on the development once they become available.