Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall,  600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, California

Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center comprised of three building all designed for entertaining through plays, performances and concerts, has arrived to rave reviews. "We love the acoustics," say the hearty crowd rushing to buy up the prime seats in this 2,000 seat venue. 

Friends and neighbors have told us about their experiences in attending. The acoustics are, indeed, great!  They got it right this time around. When the sister building next door was unveiled several decades ago, refinement was required after the concert audience, the conductors, musicians and performers found problems with the sound system.  It was soon fixed but that type of grand opening was nixed on this shiny, swirling building of curved glass, winding stairs and unique lighting. You can almost call it a big glass wave, but not quite.

When Henry Segerstrom traveled and visited a variety of unique concert halls, he reportedly examined what worked, what was interesting about each one and what he would learn from each, to design his masterpiece. For those not aware, Henry Segerstom is one of the land owners who held deed on huge parcels of property throughout undeveloped Orange County.  He began building on it almost half a century ago, with South Coast Plaza one of his early coups.  Situated on a new freeway called San Diego Freeway, the mall was managed so well that it developed and grew into a venue that now rivals Beverly Hills's Rodeo Drive, having every boutique and upscale store that the trendy Los Angeles shopping area sports.

Intelligent marketing, wise planning and a series of successes all contributed to not only Segerstrom's increasing wealth, but also to his sense of community and recognition that Orange County had come into its own, now needing arts and entertainment to serve the growing (3 million) population. When his first arts center opened, a Los Angeles Times reporter was unimpressed with the behavior of attendees to the new Orange County Performing Arts Center. Criticizing the audience for not knowing when to applaud during classic music performances, those types of reviews haven't been written for a long time.

Today, there's an incredible hunger for great tickets and when you go to book, you'll see what's left is either very far back, or the most expensive seats in the house.  That's the way things are, now that Orange County has a conductor that locals have come to know and love (Esa Peka Solomon), and concerts that are world class.