Segerstrom’s Art Continues to Enchant

His public and proud garden and sculpture installations encourage people to get up close and personal.

On a bright recent weekday, Sean Saint-Louis surveyed the “California Scenario” sculpture garden in Costa Mesa and smiled, recalling a story about the time its patron had to run to its defense.

The garden, designed by Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi, was commissioned by the late developer Henry Segerstrom in the early 1980s and occupies a quiet 1.6-acre space inside a cluster of buildings. In addition to stone-and-metal formations, the installation features living indigenous plants — and one of those, apparently, led to a misunderstanding shortly after Noguchi finished the work.

“There’s, like, a wispy little plant, and one of the maintenance workers was pulling it,” Saint-Louis said, pointing to the planter at one end of the garden. “And Henry was visiting — you know, observing his achievement or whatnot, and he was sitting here, just as a regular worker, I guess, would be from one of the office towers.

“And he sees this man pulling what [the worker] thinks is weeds. And Henry rushes over and says, ‘That’s part of the installation!’”

If one of Segerstrom’s commissioned pieces had to be rescued from a gardener’s efficiency, that tells a great deal about his attitude toward art.

Over the years, the business magnate and his family donated huge swaths of land that gave rise to opulent venues: South Coast Plaza, South Coast Repertory, the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

In addition, Segerstrom acquired or commissioned a series of public artworks that highlight the spaces between those landmarks.

According to Debra Gunn Downing, the executive director of marketing for South Coast Plaza, Segerstrom had a private art collection as well. When he declared a piece public, though, it was public and proud. Nearly all of the works displayed in the arts district allow — or even encourage — the public to get up close and interact with them.

“Connector,” a 65-foot-high steel sculpture by Richard Serra outside the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, offers openings that lead to a hollow interior where voices echo off the metal walls. Joan Miro’s bronze “Oiseau” greets visitors to the Park Center Tower the moment they walk in.

George Rickey’s stainless steel “Four Lines Oblique Gyratory — Square IV,” a 24-foot-high kinetic sculpture that moves with the breeze, looms over outdoor tables on the patio of the Center Club.

In short, the Noguchi garden is not the only spot in north Costa Mesa where art

SUSAN HOFFMAN | Daily Pilot File Photo ARCHITECT SHOJI SADAO and sculptor Isamu Noguchi created the pyramid-shaped abstract with a river landscape titled "Water Use." Water flows into the base of the pyramid from a curving channel cut into the surface of the hardscape.

Photos by SUSAN HOFFMAN LOCATED AT Segerstrom Hall, “Fire Bird” was created in 1986 by artist Richard Lippold. Made from aluminum and stainless steel, it weighs in at 3 tons.

“SPIRIT OF THE LIMA BEAN,” a 7-foot granite sculpture created by Isamu Noguchi, serves as the centerpiece of the garden and honors Segerstrom’s farming roots.