The Big Plan: History of Irvine and UCI, From Ranch to Global Community

UCI Libraries welcomed H. Pike Oliver and C. Michael Stockstill, authors of Transforming the Irvine Ranch: Joan Irvine, William Pereira, Ray Watson, and the Big Plan, and Robert Dannenbrink, former UCI campus planner, for an insiders’ account of the history of UCI and its surrounding community.
Drawing on interviews, personal records, and archival materials from UCI Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives, Stockstill and Oliver’s book tell the story of how the Irvine Ranch, a 93,000-acre Southern California agricultural empire, transformed into a world-renowned planned community with a top 10 public university. They explained how the University of California’s search for a new campus in the late 1950s ties into the origin of a city, family drama, and post-WWII affordable housing. As a bonus, Dannenbrink shared first-hand accounts of the evolution of the UCI campus and its surrounding community, with a special look at “Inclusions, Exclusions, and the Campus that Never Was.”