Highly anticipated opening of the Orange County Museum of Art

After more than a decade of development and construction, the long-awaited Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) opened to the public on Saturday October 8, 2022. Designed by Thom Mayne of Morphosis, the 53,000 SF museum is the last performing arts venue to be built as part of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, CA.

The OCMA celebrated the opening with a full 24-hours of programming, with five inaugural exhibitions on display. Public admission to the gallery will be free for the next 10 years, thanks to a generous grant from a local business – an open invitation that shows how the OCMA is accessible and welcoming to the entire community.

Morphosis designed the museum to be an open, communal space that softens the boundaries between interior and exterior. The building’s façade is its most dynamic feature, comprised of white terra cotta panels that curve and twist through galleries and around glass crosswalks.

“[The architect] understood what we wanted in a building most of all was an invitation, a beckoning to the entire community to come on by and experience what we have to offer … a seamless connection between outside and inside.” – OCMA Director Heidi Zuckerman, for KCET

Boston Valley worked closely with Morphosis to design and rationalize the OCMA’s curved façade, which started as a prototype exploration during the 2017 ACAWorkshop. Together, we fabricated a full-scale mockup as proof-of-concept for the ability of terra cotta to meet the tolerances, cuts, and curvatures required by the design.

Architectural terra cotta’s inherent flexibility made it possible to process the curved forms, while its low thermal mass and evaporative cooling potential is ideal for the dry, arid climate of Southern California. This specific combination of qualities could not be matched by other building materials, including metal and concrete.

Morphosis chose a high-performance white glaze for the terra cotta rainscreen, which enhances the light and airy feel of the expansive structure. The white color also helps to redirect the heat of the blazing West Coast sun away from the building, boosting its energy efficiency by keeping external surface temperatures down.

The OCMA has had heavy media coverage in recent weeks in anticipation of the opening. The project featured in articles by a number of digital publications, both national and local to Orange County. We have compiled these articles below for easy viewing: