This book examines how the Irvine Ranch in Southern California transitioned from an agricultural empire into new town development during the 1960s and 70s. It will be the first of a new series offered by the American Real Estate Society and should be available in late June 2022.

We tell the story of the 110,000-acres that James Irvine assembled from two Mexican land grants and a portion of a Spanish land grant beginning in 1864. By the mid-20th century, his son, James Irvine II (JI), had created an agricultural empire extending across the remaining 93,000-acres, located 35 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. Upon JI’s death in 1947, the James Irvine Foundation assumed control of the Irvine Ranch. 

Following World War II, suburban growth sprawled across Orange County toward the ranch. During this time, the Irvine Company pursued several incremental real estate development opportunities but continued its focus on agriculture and ranching. In the late 1950s, the University of California’s search for a new campus became the catalyst for THE BIG PLAN for a research university and a suburban new town that William Pereira’s firm prepared and submitted to the company in 1961.  

Thus began the Irvine Company’s rapid shift into detailed planning, engineering, financing, constructing, and marketing of large-scale planned development. We examine the significant real estate development projects undertaken on the Irvine Ranch over the ensuing decade and a half. The company also influenced the creation of several public agencies, including a water district, school district, and a municipality--the City of Irvine. We also tell about how the company dealt with an emerging environmental movement and affordable housing activists during the 1970s.

Dissident Irvine family heiress Joan Irvine Smith successfully lobbied Congress to insert a provision in the Tax Reform Act of 1969 that forced the James Irvine Foundation to sell its controlling interest in the Irvine Company. Our story includes previously untold details of the bidding war that ensued and resulted in a $337 million cash sale to a new ownership group in 1977.