Irvine

Irvine is an experiment in whether cities can be designed rather than grown. In 1960, the Irvine Company—still managing a 185-square-mile ranch assembled from Mexican land grants in 1864—hired architect William Pereira to plan a city from scratch. The resulting Master Plan mandated one-third of all land as permanent open space, created a 'city of villages' connected by walking paths, and reserved land for a university before the city even existed.

That university seed proved decisive. In 1961, the Irvine Company sold 990 acres to the University of California for $1.00. UC Irvine opened in 1965, and the research infrastructure attracted technology companies that made Irvine a planned innovation hub. The city formally incorporated in 1971; by 2025, its population reached 318,629.

The planning worked. Irvine has been rated 'America's Safest Big City' by the FBI since 2005. WalletHub ranked it the fourth-best city for families in 2025. The primary innovation industries—robotics, cardiovascular technologies, AI, quantum computing, gaming—all have substantial VC funding pipelines. High-tech firms coexist with precisely calibrated residential villages in a suburban density that optimizes for automobile access while preserving green space.

But the Irvine experiment has limits. A master-planned city selects for certain populations—those who can afford $1M+ median home prices, who want predictable environments, who prefer driving to walking. The same design that created safety and family-friendliness also created homogeneity. Irvine is what happens when you optimize for outcomes that can be planned.

By 2026, Irvine tests whether designed cities can adapt. The Master Plan that enabled success was written in 1960. The question is whether a city built to be controlled can learn to evolve.