Best Project - Cultural/Worship: Orange County Museum of Art
After more than 10 years of planning, the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) has a new facility more than double the size of its former space. Completed in October 2022, the 53,000-sq-ft addition to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts campus in Costa Mesa, Calif., will house an expanded collection of modern and contemporary art from Southern California and the Pacific Rim.
The building has a main floor dedicated to reconfigurable open-span exhibition space, with complementing mezzanine and street-front galleries that can accommodate temporary and permanent exhibitions. Exterior design includes a grand public stair that curves toward the entry, linking the museum to Segerstrom Center for the Arts’ Julia and George Argyros Plaza and the adjacent performing arts venues.