The school is located in the El Camino Real neighborhood in the north-central part of the city.

Irvine High School has also been named a Grammy “Signature Gold” for its instrumental and choral music departments.

Construction continued on campus during this time, with the theater and the main gym becoming available in 1977, the football-track field in 1978 and the aquatic center in 1979.

It was designed by architect Ron D. Young in the Brutalist architecture style, and built largely of tilt up concrete slabs featuring distinctive cast geometric inlays.

The initial layout of the Humanities building envisioned two or three teachers and their respective students sharing a single open plan hexagonal room, but this quickly proved too distracting.

Portable office dividers were placed in a line to define classroom boundaries, but noise was still a problem.

Irvine High School's alma mater is inspired by Jean Sibelius's composition Finlandia and arranged by Eugene Davis, a member of the class of 1980.