Irvine, CA

Irvine was planned around a university before it became a city. In 1959, the University of California asked the Irvine Company for 1,000 acres, and architect William Pereira worked with company planners on a university campus surrounded by a new community. Development began in the 1960s, UC Irvine opened in 1965, and Irvine incorporated in 1971. That origin remains visible in a landscape divided into planned villages, employment districts, shopping centers, parks, and broad arterial roads. The original plan still disperses daily activity among UC Irvine, the airport-side business complex, Irvine Spectrum, and eastern villages. Broad arterial roads and landscaped corridors connect those centers across more than 65 square miles. Irvine’s major employment centers occupy several large districts across the city. The Irvine Business Complex near John Wayne Airport combines offices, light industry, retail, and newer housing.

ATTRKennethHan / Public domain

Farther southeast, the Spectrum and Technology Center areas hold corporate campuses, laboratories, manufacturing space, and major shopping and entertainment uses near Interstate 5 and Irvine Station. UC Irvine is itself a major workplace as well as a campus. The university enrolled 36,621 students in 2024–25, and city records identify it as Irvine’s largest employer in 2023–24. Medical technology, health care, software, gaming, aerospace, and advanced manufacturing all have established local footprints. Companies such as Edwards Lifesciences and Blizzard Entertainment illustrate how research, product development, and creative technology sit alongside the university economy. Travel between those districts relies on broad roads, local shuttles, and an extensive bicycle network. Irvine CONNECT provides a free shuttle from the northern part of the city to Irvine Station, stopping at parks, schools, hospitals, and shopping centers about every 20 minutes.

ATTRPhoto courtesy Orange County Archives / CC BY 2.0

Its route expanded in July 2025. The bike network includes 301 lane miles of on-street bikeways and 54 miles of off-street paths, including routes that follow washes and landscaped corridors apart from major traffic lanes. The Jeffrey Open Space Trail links communities and schools along Jeffrey Road, while other trails reach regional open land at the city’s edge. Irvine also maintains 5,250 acres of permanently protected open space, a result of preservation agreements built into later phases of development. Great Park gives the eastern side a civic center on the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro.

ATTRNo machine-readable author provided. Infratec~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims). / Public domain

The 1,300-acre property includes athletic fields and the Palm Court Arts Complex, where a gallery, studio, historic hangar, and outdoor plaza host exhibitions and programs. In August 2025, Irvine launched its municipal library system at the existing Heritage Park, University Park, and Katie Wheeler branches. The three locations put an everyday civic service inside communities spread across the planned city. The annual Irvine Global Village Festival brings another layer of community activity to Great Park. Its 25th edition in 2026 featured music, dance, food, art, cultural displays, and a marketplace shaped by communities represented across Irvine. Residents first organized the multicultural festival in 1988, and it now brings Irvine’s communities together each year on the grounds of the former Marine air station.