IRVINE : Tustin Air Facility Is Students’ Project

While politicians debate what to do with the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station, some high school and college students are already busy designing sleek new structures to be built on the base, which is slated for closure by the Pentagon.

The students submitted scale models of their ideas for the American Institute of Architects’ annual Orange County Design and Drawing Competition.

Winners of the contest will be honored today, and their work will go on display in Costa Mesa next week.

Under the mock scenario crafted by institute officials, the Tustin base is closed and transformed into an aircraft museum.

It’s the students’ job to design a visitor center and theater that will be built next to the base’s historic blimp hangars.

“The base closure is on everyone’s mind. People wonder what will happen when these bases close,” said contest organizer Duane McLeod of Coleman Caskey Architects in Irvine. “All of Southern California has a strong aircraft history. . . . This could be a good reuse of the facility.”

McLeod admits that the students’ ideas have little chance of actually being built.

He also said the contest in no way is designed to influence the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, which is studying the possible closure of both Tustin and the nearby El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

But the contest did touch the imaginations of 37 Orange County students who submitted scale models.

The most difficult part of the assignment was to design a visitor center within the institute’s specifications that would not be “overwhelmed” by the two blimp hangars, which in 1978 were declared national historical landmarks, McLeod said.

“The things are so huge, their height equals that of an 18-story building,” he said. “It was a challenge to come up with something unique that does not get lost next to the hangars.”

McLeod praised the winning entry in the community college division, a “vertical” four-story building complete with a viewing deck that “brought to mind the feeling of an airplane lifting off the ground and flying,” he said.

A second winning entry consists of three connected buildings similar in style to the blimp hangars. Together, the buildings resemble a helicopter blade.

Winners of the contest will be announced at a ceremony today.

Their work will be on display through Friday at the institute office at the Great Western Bank building, 3200 Park Center Drive, Costa Mesa.