Model for the Future

Between Los Angeles and San Diego lies a vast tract of land that has changed little since it was bought as a ranch by James Irvine in 1864. Its 93,000 acres stretch from the Pacific across the coastal hills and into the Santa Ana Mountains, form an area six times bigger than Manhattan and one-third as big as Los Angeles. As the rest of Southern California has been built up, the land value of the Irvine ranch, bought originally for 36-c- an acre, has soared to an estimated $108 million.

Last week Irvine Company President Charles S. Thomas, former Secretary of the Navy, announced plans to turn the ranch into the first fully planned U.S. metropolitan area, which he hopes will serve as a model for future planners. It will be complete with clusters of communities connected by green stretches, extensive recreation areas and industry. Estimated total cost: $13.5 billion. By 1980, the area is expected to have a population of 300,000.

The master plan was drawn by Architect William L. Pereira, who did the overall design for the University of California's Santa Barbara branch. Instead of developing the Irvine ranch simply as a suburb of sprawling Los Angeles, Pereira has planned an independent, self-supporting city. The first community in the urban area (see map) will border Newport Beach, have a $150 million shopping center with garden apartments, single homes and acres of green lawns. "This community will not be dominated by the auto," says Pereira. "It will be a walking community where women can stroll to the shops with their children just as our grandmothers did."

Three miles east of the shopping area will be the heart of the new development, the 1,000-acre university section where the University of California is building a new branch. The first buildings will be ready to receive the students in 1964; when completed in 1980, the entire complex will house 25,000 students. Since many of them will want part-time jobs, light industry (electronics, aircraft and missile components) will be located on the perimeter of the university section.

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