Orange Coast College was formed after local voters passed a measure in the January 1947 election to establish a new junior college on a 243-acre (0.98 km2) site, secured from the War Assets Administration in Washington, D.C., and part of the 1,300-acre (5.3 km2) deactivated Santa Ana Army Air Base.

Construction of campus classrooms and facilities began when Peterson hired Fran Albers as the college's carpenter in February 1948.

Albers' crew of 35 workers (mostly Coast football players paid 60 cents an hour) turned an Army movie theatre into an auditorium and concert hall; a service club into a 500-seat gymnasium; an Army chapel into a facility for theatre productions and student/staff weddings; a military storage building into a library; an Army PX into a student center; a battalion headquarters building into an administration building; and several cadet barracks into student dormitories and married student and faculty housing.

Leaving many of the original buildings intact, Neutra added several modernist structures including the strikingly minimalist Campus Theater and two large lecture halls.

In March 2007, the Orange Coast College Foundation Board of Directors voted to sell the island after determining that keeping and maintaining it was unfeasible.

After public outcry, the punishment was overturned in a special meeting of the Coast Community College District Board of Trustees, in the interest of bringing "closure to a chain of events that has led to the distress for many, most especially, an OCC teacher and student."

[13] The 12 men's sports programs are baseball, basketball, crew, cross country, football, golf, soccer, swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball and water polo.

The Los Angeles Chargers have held training camp and regular season practices at the campus facilities.

The facility hosts science, technology, engineering, and mathematics educational programs for kids and community telescope nights.

[27] During the school year, there are monthly guest lectures from astrophysicists, aeronautical scholars, and other space science experts called the "Skylark Speaker Series".

[28][29][30] Guests have included planetary scientist Konstantin Batygin, astrophysicist Sabrina Stierwalt, and aerospace engineer and Virgin Galactic Unity 25 crew member Christopher Huie.

[32] During the Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, the college hosted a community education and viewing event that more than 3,000 people in the attended.