On Wednesday, Segerstrom Center for the Arts officially will start in on plans for a redesigned central plaza and new entrance to the Judy Morr Theater with a private groundbreaking.

The project aims to expand the center’s reach, attract new audiences and create a “town square” where people can gather for free events and relax in green spaces with food from a new outdoor cafe.

The idea is to make the center welcoming to a wider swath of the community, including people from younger and more diverse groups – both ethnically and economically – than the patrons who traditionally turn out for a symphony concert or ballet performance.

Segerstrom announced the project in 2015 and had planned to break ground last year, wrapping up construction by last fall. But design changes have delayed that. Now the goal is to finish construction by October or November, said Segerstrom Center President Terrence W. Dwyer.

Dwyer said revisions to the plaza design led to the delay.

“We saw an opportunity to do a little more design work … to better serve the patrons and the artists that will be using the plaza,” he said.

Some of the area that had been planned for trees instead will be taken up by more seating and tables. Working out the details with the architect for the project, Los Angeles-based Michael Maltzan Architecture, and getting approval for the revised plans from the city of Costa Mesa extended the timeline. But the result will be a more welcoming plaza with more places to gather, Dwyer said.

There will be two green spaces, an outdoor cafe, a circular grand staircase leading from the plaza to the mezzanine level of Segerstrom Hall, a new entrance to the Judy Morr Theater and an outdoor stage along the south side of Segerstrom Hall.

The plaza will be renamed the Julianne and George Argyros Plaza, after the patrons who have given the largest donation to the project, $13.5 million. There is a footprint reserved for the future home of the Orange County Museum of Art, now in Newport Beach, to the east of the concert hall and abutting the redesigned plaza.

To pay for the new initiatives plus existing debt on the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, which opened in 2006, the center launched the $68 million “Next Act Campaign” in 2015 along with its plans. With changes to the plaza design, the new goal is $70 million, Dwyer said, of which $16 million will pay for the new construction and new programs. The remaining $54 million is to pay for existing spaces, including the concert hall.

So far, Segerstrom has raised just over $46 million, Dwyer said.

“Now that we’re approaching groundbreaking, there’s a lot of enthusiasm about the project, and a lot of people are talking to us about potentially supporting this.”

The center hopes to have some “significant progress” to report on the fundraising front in the next three to six months, he said.

Donors and supporters of the project have recognized the changes occurring in Orange County’s demographics and with that in mind want to contribute to Orange County’s future, Dwyer said.

“The people that are interested in supporting this project … are people that are interested in having a really positive impact on the entire community … really to help the center evolve and respond to the changing community.”

New audiences

The new construction is just half of the initiative Segerstrom Center unveiled in 2015 to broaden its appeal. Free community events, which could include high school graduations or performances by Latino musicians, are envisioned for the outdoor stage.

Also part of the plan is the new Center for Dance and Innovation, to be housed in the Judy Morr Theater and supported with several renovated rehearsal spaces. Segerstrom recently started its American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie School of dance under this umbrella.

Another example of Segerstrom pitching to a wider audience through the Center for Dance and Innovation is the “Active Space” program it held last year. Dancers from the Mariinsky Ballet in Russia collaborated with UC Irvine in a project that mixed choreography with technology to allow dancers to explore movement in a new way, Dwyer explained. The resulting performances were streamed live on Facebook, where they had more than 10,000 visitors.

“Part of our future will be having an enhanced digital presence throughout social media,” Dwyer said. “We want to exist in that world and perform in that world.”

A third part of Segerstrom Center’s plans is the Center Without Boundaries, an effort to expand community outreach. One upcoming program here is a series of dance and movement classes for children with disabilities such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and autism. The Center Without Boundaries also is developing programs with institutions including Orangewood Children’s Home and Alzheimer’s Orange County.

Access and impact

Already, the center has attracted visitors with a free summer movie series. But whether that series will happen this summer, during construction on the plaza, has yet to be decided, according to Tim Dunn, director of public relations for Segerstrom Center.

Free performances are planned on at least 25 or 30 weekends a year. Those generally will end before regular, ticketed evening performances start, so someone might spend time in the plaza before going to a Pacific Symphony performance or come just for the free event, Dwyer said.

But with Segerstrom Center’s location in a busy commercial and office area near South Coast Plaza, it’s still largely accessible only by car. Parking in the nearby garage costs $10. The center is trying to raise financial support to address that cost, perhaps for specific events.

“We have not yet figured out how to provide free parking,” Dwyer said. “We’re going to do everything we possibly can to address (that) … to maximize access by the broadest possible sampling of our community.”

New uses

Segerstrom Center’s plans put it on the cutting edge of the trend among museums and cultural institutions to remake their open areas into more inviting places for the public, says Elena Madison, vice president of the Project for Public Spaces.

“It’s been a wave in the last, I would say, three to five years where a lot of these bigger venues are trying to reinvent themselves,” Madison said. “They really are looking at opportunities to try and attract new audiences, even if they’re not paying audiences.”

“Many cultural institutions today find themselves in a situation (where) their traditional audiences are not covering everybody, and demographics are changing.” It appears Segerstrom Center leaders are recognizing that as well, she said.

One advantage Segerstrom has is it already has an open plaza to work with, she said. Some cultural institutions, such as those built in the 1980s and early ’90s, face trying to transform fortress-like construction into more welcoming places.

The New York City nonprofit organization consults with cultural institutions and cities to create active public spaces. One of its California clients was the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. After the Project for Public Spaces helped with a community input process, the museum is at work on a $5 million project to transform the courtyard outside its entrance and adjacent areas into a town square of sorts for performances, family events, restaurant kiosks and a garden.

With free events, a cafe and casual outdoor sitting areas, the plaza in Costa Mesa also will be like a town square, Dwyer said.

“Various communities throughout Orange County will … feel they own it. They will feel invested in it. … We think there’s going to be a really dynamic energy,” he said. “It will really activate the campus in a number of really exciting ways.”

Contact the writer: aboessenkool@ocregister.com