A Calif. Call For "21st Century Olmsted"

Plans for an international airport (shown here) at the former Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro, Calif. were derailed when neighbors objected to the plans.

Organizers working to create a seven-square-mile park in Orange County, Calif. are inviting world class landscape architects and designers to compete for the job of Master Designer for the Orange County Great Park.

"Fredrick Law Olmstead designed New York's Central Park in the mid 19th Century and inspired the creation of great metropolitan parks throughout the United States," said Larry Agran, Chair of the Orange County Great Park Corporation. "We are conducting an international search for the Fredrick Law Olmstead of the 21st Century, and are confident that we will find a designer of his caliber for the Great Park."

The group's announcement of the search went out on the 183rd anniversary of Olmsted's birthday. He was born on April 26, 1822 in Hartford, Conn.

Thirty-eight internationally known landscape architecture and design firms have been specifically invited to submit their qualifications, and any qualified design firm is also invited to submit its qualifications. Dr. Hamid Shirvani, Provost and Professor of Architecture at Chapman University, has been retained to assemble a design jury of respected academics, architects and designers to review the submissions. The jury panel and Dr. Shirvani will recommend six semi-finalists to the Orange County Great Park Board of Directors.

The Great Park will be developed on the site of the decommissioned El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, on seven square miles of land in the geographic center of Orange County, California.

To access the complete text of the Master Designer Request for Proposal and to learn more about the Great Park, go to www.ocgp.org.