Orange County Performing Arts

Appearing to fly out from the concert-theater hall's entrance, the Fire Bird is a commanding sight. This three-ton creation of polished aluminum and stainless steel nests in the Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Designed and built by abstract expressionist sculptor Richard Lippold (1915 - 2002), it's 60 feet tall, 100 feet deep, and has a wingspan of 120 feet, all supported by 490 cables. The sculpture was commissioned and named by the center's benefactor, philanthropist Renée Segerstrom, who loved the 1910 ballet The Firebird Suite (L'Oiseau de Feu) by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. Facing west, this red, gold, and silver wires catch the afternoon sunlight, causing the shiny metals to deepen in color, complementing the building's red granite exterior.

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At first sight you wonder "What in the world is this?", and are enticed to get closer. In the plaza of the Orange County Performing Arts Center, a newly erected 66-foot tall steel sculpture (named Collector) stands as a bridge between two premier halls of entertainment: the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, and its cousin Segerstrom Hall opera house. This 360-ton hollow structure (built by Richard Serra, a 1939-born American minimalist artist) consists of five plates of German made corten steel. Fused and shaped like a hexagon, the base is twenty feet in diameter and arches upward into a four feet wide opening. Allowed to naturally oxidize, its rusty colors deepen during sunrise and sunset. Children love to hear their voices echo and reverberate inside its chamber-like base. In 1987, Serra built a similar sculpture in Liverpool Street in London, which he named Fulcrum.

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