Current Time in Irvine, United States

Irvine lies in the centre of Orange County in southern California, on a coastal plain between the Santa Ana Mountains and the Pacific, a few kilometres inland from Newport Beach. With around three hundred and ten thousand residents it is one of the largest cities in the county and one of the most thoroughly planned communities in the United States.

The land belonged for a century to a single enormous ranch, assembled in the 1860s by James Irvine and his partners out of former Spanish and Mexican land grants and covering roughly a fifth of the county. In the 1960s the family company commissioned the architect William Pereira to design a new city around a proposed university campus, and the plan he produced, a series of self-contained villages separated by greenbelts and linked by broad parkways, still governs how Irvine looks and works. The city was incorporated in 1971, and the same company continues to develop much of it, which accounts for the consistency of its architecture and landscaping.

The University of California, Irvine, opened in 1965 as the anchor of the plan and has grown into a major public research university with tens of thousands of students, strong programmes in medicine, engineering, computer science and the humanities, and a distinctive circular campus built around a park. Its faculty have included Nobel laureates, and the university hospital and medical research complex serve the whole region.

Irvine is a significant business centre. Semiconductor and networking companies, medical device manufacturers, gaming studios, electric vehicle makers, and the American headquarters of Asian automotive and consumer brands are based here, and the Irvine Spectrum, an open-air shopping and entertainment district with a Ferris wheel, is one of the busiest retail destinations in California. The city is consistently reported by federal crime statistics as among the safest large cities in the country, and its public schools rank among the best in the state, factors that have driven decades of steady growth.

The population is exceptionally diverse. Around half of residents are of Asian descent, with large Chinese, Korean, Indian, Vietnamese and Taiwanese communities, and there is a substantial Persian population as well; more than a third of residents were born outside the United States. Restaurants, markets, temples and festivals reflect that mixture in everyday life.

Open space is abundant. The Orange County Great Park occupies a former Marine Corps air station and includes sports fields, a balloon ride and cultural facilities, while the Irvine Ranch Natural Landmarks protect canyons, wildflower slopes and marshland recognised at national level, with hundreds of kilometres of hiking and cycling trails.

Freeways and toll roads cross the city, John Wayne Airport is minutes away, and commuter and intercity trains stop at Irvine Station.

Safe, green, prosperous and deliberately designed, Irvine is a striking example of modern American urban planning.