[7] Preliminary drawings of Piano's plans for a one-story, 87,129 sq ft (8,094.5 m2) building, unveiled in August 1989,[15] showed a barrel-vaulted design that would be cut into the hillside to avoid violating local height restrictions.

[16] The response to the design was initially enthusiastic, but less than a year later, Piano lost the commission over assertions of escalating cost and insufficient gallery space.

[21][22] The project also involved carving two art studios and a classroom out of office space in the former Newport Beach Public Library next door, which also has a new 108-seat auditorium and a vastly enlarged collection storage area; the library building was donated to the museum by the Irvine Co.[21] In 2004, the lobby was transformed on a tight budget by Bauer and Wiley Architects of Newport Beach.

[6] In June 2008, OCMA announced its intent to pull up stakes from its longtime home at 850 San Clemente Drive in Newport Center[23] when it was given title to a 1.64-acre parcel on Avenue of the Arts, on the condition that it break ground within five years.

[34] Following from the design of Thom Mayne and Morphosis, the $93-million[35] building features curving bands of terracotta paneling to create a distinctive visual character.

It also features an additional 10,000 sq ft (930 m2) for education programs, performances, and public gatherings, and include administrative offices, a gift shop, and a café.

[37] The Orange County Museum of Art has organized exhibitions of contemporary art, including the first surveys of Vija Celmins (1980), Chris Burden (1988), and Tony Cragg (1990), as well as major exhibitions of work by Lari Pittman (1983), Gunther Forg (1989), Charles Ray (1990), Guillermo Kuitca (1992), Bill Viola (1997), Inigo Manglano-Ovalle (2003), Catherine Opie (2006), Mary Heilmann (2007), and Jack Goldstein(2012).

[38] Thematic exhibitions of contemporary art have ranged from Objectives: The New Sculpture (1990) which presented the work of Grenville Davey, Katharina Fritsch, Robert Gober, Jeff Koons, Annette Lemieus, Juan Muñoz, Julian Opie, and Haim Steinbach;[38] Girls’ Night Out (2003), which presented work by Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Elina Brotherus, Dorit Cypis, Rineke Dijkstra, Katy Grannan, Sarah Jones, Kelly Nipper, Daniela Rossell, Shirana Shahbazi, and Salla Tykka;[39] and State of Mind: New California Art circa 1970, presenting an in-depth study of California artists in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 2013, that program evolved into the California-Pacific Triennial, the first on-going exhibition in the Western Hemisphere devoted to contemporary art from around the Pacific Rim.

These projects include Kutlug Ataman: Paradise (2007);[44] Mary Heilmann: To Be Someone (2012); Jack Goldstein x 10,000 (2012); and Richard Jackson: Ain’t Painting a Pain (2013).

[46] The museum's international holdings are a growing area of the collection, featuring work by Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Lee Bul, Katy Grannan, Joseph Grigely, Glenn Ligon, Christian Marclay, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Marjetica Potrc, David Reed, Daniela Rossell, and Lorna Simpson.