Master Plan Morphs; Christ Cathedral Draws; Blanning’s CROC

Early take on Dan Young’s decision to step away from the Irvine Company: Donald Bren’s master plan continues to morph into something that increasingly looks like more of an operating company than a developer. Turn to page one for more details on Young’s move … Early math on the ongoing renovation of the one-time Crystal Cathedral campus into the Diocese of Orange’s Christ Cathedral: About 12,000 worshipers attend 11 masses in four languages on any given Sunday—with the Chinese dialect of Mandarin recently added to services in English, Spanish and Vietnamese … Ties to China abound in OC, where several cities have drawn significant populations of immigrants from the Middle Kingdom and South Coast Plaza has become a popular stop for well-heeled tourists. The American-Chinese CEO Society and SCP will present a reminder of another connection that stretches all the way back to 1972, the year Richard Nixon—a native son of Yorba Linda, now home to his presidential library—made his ice-breaking trip to China. Some less-than-obvious reverberations of the trip will be the subject of “The Week That Changed the World: Nixon, China and the Arts,” an exhibit set for a festive opener on June 23 in SCP’s Jewel Court. It’s billed as an “an unprecedented collaboration” that includes the Nixon Library, the Getty, Carnegie Hall, Bowers Museum, Orange County Museum of Art, Pacific Symphony, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, South Coast Repertory and USC Pacific Asia Museum … Wonder if Kacy Jun is rethinking the decision to plant his Korean bibimbap specialist Urban Seoul’s first flag beyond OC in the Little Tokyo district of L.A., where a recent Saturday night found the place closed at the height of the dinner hour … We sure can pick ‘em—again: Last week this space noted that one-time Business Journal Family Owned Business Award winner Tam Nguyen and recent Excellence in Entrepreneurship honoree Twila True have forged some business links. This week brings more notable nuggets about the Business Journal’s events roster, which brought current HP boss Meg Whitman to OC as the keynoter for the Women in Business Awards in 2009, and cosmetic entrepreneur Toni Ko for the same assignment in 2015. Whitman recently placed ninth on Forbes’ list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women, with a net worth of $2 billion. Ko was No. 57, with $260 million—one spot and $5 million behind Beyonce … One more pick: Jane Buchan, CEO of PAAMCO, will be a panelist when the CFA Society Orange County and moderator Jane Wells of CNBC consider “What Lies Ahead for the Rest of 2016” during a June 16 dinner meeting at the Pacific Club. Buchan was an honoree at last year’s Women in Business Awards … They sure can pick ‘em: Congratulations to one-time Business Journal staffer Adam Steinhauer, recently named editor of the Sacramento Business Journal … Bill Blanning, who handled PR for Broadcom as it became a big-time chipmaker, sent this along about an item that appeared here recently about Irvine Company vet Larry Thomas and his I (Heart) BS sticker. “Several years ago Larry and I organized a group of senior PR people from OC companies and colleges for gatherings to talk shop and share war stories,” Blanning wrote. “Our group was dubbed the Communicators Roundtable of OC—or CROC, of course.”