The Plausible Impossible: WESTCOT Center and the Disneyland Resort - Part 4

Part One.

Part Two.

Part Three.

Spaceship Earth west coast style. 300 feet tall.

This illustrative drawing of the Resort gives you a bird's eye view of all of the changes. You can see how intense and dense the development was planned to be. This would have truly been an urban theme park that took advantage of its compact site to create a unique vacationing experience that is quite different than WDW.

Last week I provided a brief outline of the proposed expanded Disneyland Resort as envisioned in a planning document released in 1991. The Plan featured a new theme park, multiple hotels, a new shopping center, a sophisticated traffic management system, and so much more.

It is important to remember who was the audience for the Disneyland Resort Preliminary Master Plan. This document had to appeal to policymakers and their advisors at the local, regional, state, county, and federal levels. All of these players would be called upon to collaborate and partner with Disney to make this dream come true.

To broaden support, Disney had suggested that the resort could become a demonstration site and hub for a number of innovative transportation systems. Imagine arriving at the Disneyland Resort by the Las Vegas High Speed Rail Train or the Orange County Monorail or the Anaheim PeopleMover system. All of this was to provide visitors with options so that they could leave their car at home.

The entire project would be guided by seven guiding principles.

- Project Unity would create an environmental design experience that is more powerful than its parts. Everything will support everything else. Visual contradictions will be eliminated.

- Integration with the Anaheim Commercial Recreation Area would make sure that the entire community benefits and not just Disney.

- A Dramatic Entry Sequence would provide notable gateways and create a sense of place.

- Parking on the Perimeter is the innovative way to deal with the tens of thousands of cars that would be descending upon the project everyday.

- Transportation Linkages is a reminder to make it easy for people to get around and to be connected with the region.

- Pedestrian Orientation means the resort would become a series of unfolding spaces that encourage walking.

- Diversity of Guest Activities helps to define the project programming by insisting on a wide variety of activities that appeal to a wide range of demographics.

I was glad to see that Disneyland was going to get some TLC. New attractions would include Toontown, a brand new Tomorrowland themed to the year 2055, and “The Indiana Jones Adventure Spectacular”. There was also the promise to spruce up the park.

But the big news would be the centerpiece of the expansion – WESTCOT Center. Eisner asked his Imagineers to “amaze me” and they certainly delivered. This would have been the most complex, fully realized theme park in Disney history rivaled only by the implementation of Tokyo DisneySea some ten years later.

WESTCOT Center was meant to be the center of the “global village”. Keep in mind that the development of WESTCOT Center was fast tracked and very much in the early stages. But the vision painted by the Plan illustrates a park unlike anything Disney had ever done before. WESTCOT Center would have been the world’s first truly urban theme park.

While studying WESTCOT I am reminded that this park represented the best thinking of Imagineering at a time when they could do no wrong. Before, the struggles of Euro Disneyland or underperforming parks like Animal Kingdom, California Adventure, the Paris Studios, Hong Kong Disneyland, etc. This was the vision of a bunch of people at the top of their game.

At the 1994 NFFC convention, Imagineer Tony Baxter gave an interview and revealed additional details about WESTCOT and what they designers were trying to accomplish. Baxter highlighted two initiatives.

The first initiative was to create a much more participatory and immersive environment. You don’t passively sit by and watch the action but you become a part of the story. The characters and activities interact with the guests.

The second initiative was that WESTCOT would be the first theme park where you could spend the night inside of the park. As he said during his talk, guests would be able to “live the dream”. You don’t just visit the Asian corner of the world you can spend the night. The same went for Europe and the African sections of the park.

Next week we will push the turn-styles and see what is beyond.

A OMINIBUS RIDE DOWN DISNEYLAND'S MAIN STREET USA

From Day One, the Omnibus was a Main Street attraction. It only took one A-ticket to enjoy the high speed thrills and...wait wrong ride. This bus chugs along at a whopping 5 miles per hour. At this breakneck speed you can really enjoy the wonderful details of Main Street USA and save your feet for later.

Walt's idea that a hustling and bustling city should be filled with traffic. He knew he had the pedestrians. All he needed were the vehicles. Originally the street was filled with a blend of motorized and horse drawn vehicles representing the transition in time that is Main Street. However, the horses have been retired with the exception of those troopers who drag along the trolleys.

The Omnibus was designed by Bob Gurr. This master of all things moving created an authentic scale model Omnibus based on 1920 New York City double decker. You have a few of seating options. You can sit down with the driver, sit on the lower level for easy access or negotiate the narrow steps to sit on the second level. The bus carries 45 passengers. Although the bus sounds like a classic it is actually a modern vehicle. It is built on a modern chassis and engine plus power steering and power brakes.

Of course, I recommend the second level. And if you are lucky, the front facing seat is a blast as you will see in the video. You get a chance to really see the details of the Main Street facades. You will gain a new appreciation for the names in the windows. They represent those have contributed greatly to the success of Disneyland and the Disney organization.

So let's go to the top and take a ride from Sleeping Beauty Castle to the Main Street Station. This is a one way trip. To get the full effect of a roundtrip just use a mirror.

The Walt Disney Family Museum - Gallery 7 preview

Talk about getting it right. The giant squid scene was pretty much done when Walt took another look. Out went the daytime battle and in came the nightime in a storm epic that we see today. This film set the Disney standard for live action films.

To get things back on track, Walt went back to the formula he knew would succeed - the Princess film. Cinderella became a huge hit and help the Studio get back in the green.

Alice was not one of Walt's favorites. Kind of odd and a bit episodic for his tastes. However, this film has aged wonderfully and is favorite for many.

We are now entering Gallery 7 which focuses on the Rebuilding years - the mid '40s to the early 1950s. This is when Walt realized that in order to succeed and not run into the problems that he had over the past few years, he needed to diversify his business. One could say that this thinking is the reason why we now have Disneyland, the nature films, incredible live-action films, various TV shows, and so much more. In some ways, this may be one of the most inventive periods in the Studios history.

A lot of experimenting was going on. The Studio began creating package films for theaters that combined shorts and feature-length animated films. More work was done on combining live action with animation refining what he started with the Alice shorts and developing the technology that would ultimately lead to Mary Poppins. Walt also produced his first live-action features including Treasure Island and the amazing 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. Talk about a productive time.

And his animated features of the period are still considered classics today - Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Lady and the Tramp, the studio's first wide-screen animated feature.

For movie buffs, you will be spending a lot of time in this gallery. Concept and animation art will be featured along with artifacts from the live-action movies. The underwater camera used in the filming of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea will be on display. Also, Walt's extensive personal collection of minatures will be on exhibit.

The Museum opens October 1 to the general public with D23, Carolwood Pacific, and Museum members getting a preview on September 26 and 27. Tickets are now on sale for the Museum at their website.

Lots of ways to follow along with the grand opening. Next week we will be entering the gallery I am most looking forward to - Gallery 8. Thanks WDF Museum folks for the early look.

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Disney Design and the Process of Unfolding - Part 6

As Monty Python famously once said, “And now for something completely different”.

This series is my opportunity to explore my curiosity with the principles articulated in Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language and his latest work The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and The Nature of the Universe. I intend to use the Disney theme parks as my lab to better understand those principles. So please indulge me as I think out loud. You bought the ticket; let’s go for the ride.

I want you to think about one of your favorite spots in one of the parks. The one that raises a knowing smile and is so vivid you could describe it to me with incredible detail. We all have one or two or more. From an environmental design point of view I want to identify what are the parts that make those spaces possible so that I can create more of those spaces. Places that exhibit a high degree of life.

When the centers converge they transform the environment. Christopher Alexander says this starts to happen when the centers “are packed and overlapped to fill the space…each one helping and intensifying the others”. The result is “the more it comes to life”.

Earlier I used the example of the Plaza Hub to demonstrate how the degree of life is increased through a thoughtful use of familiar patterns that strengthen and support one another. Another example would be the queue for Expedition Everest.

The current mantra at Imagineering is that everything is about the story. A complex back-story supports the design of everything. The legendary Imagineer, John Hench, one said that every element was designed to eliminate visual contradictions and to support the story.

The Expedition Everest queue moves through a variety of spaces each with a clear identity and purpose. The unfolding of spaces systematically allows the story to develop. By the time you get to the Yeti Museum, you have suspended your disbelief, the impossible has become plausible, and the ride takes on an increased emotional importance and meaning so that it is no longer just a rollercoaster but a journey. The centers have overlapped in both obvious and subtle ways to transform the attraction and enhance the degree of life.

The noted architect Charles W. Moore once said that “Place is the projection of the image of civilization onto the environment”. My interest in the Disney theme parks is based on how the use of story has been applied to the built environment as a way to unite the various elements. What are the patterns and how are they combined to create spaces that have a higher degree of life? Can any lessons be learned that carry over to my job creating long-term visions for cities?

To understand why some places work and some don’t, why some spaces have a higher degree of life than other spaces I recognize that we need to create an objective language that is reasonable and measurable. I want a way to share what we are all observing so that we can learn from one another.

This is the real breakthrough in Christopher Alexander’s The Nature of Order. After decades of careful, recorded observation, he has identified 15 fundamental properties that are at the heart of all centers. These are the atoms that when combined properly become a living space with a high degree of life. They are:

1. Levels of scale
2. Strong centers
3. Boundaries
4. Alternating repetition
5. Positive space
6. Good shape
7. Local symmetries
8. Deep interlock and ambiguity
9. Contrast
10. Gradients
11. Roughness
12. Echoes
13. The void
14. Simplicity
15. Not-separateness

I will provide much more detail about each of these properties over the next several articles.

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The Plausible Impossible: WESTCOT Center and the Disneyland Resort - Part 3

Here is Part One.

Here is Part Two.

The expanded Disneyland Resort

(c) Disney

Disneyland Center, Disneyland Plaza, The Disneyland Bowl and the park entrances.

(c) Disney

The expanded Disneyland Resort site plan

(c) Disney

In May 1991, the Walt Disney Company released for public review a book entitled The Disneyland Resort: Preliminary Master Plan. The planning book is dated March 1991 and its distribution was very limited. It has become a prized part of my Disneyana collection.

The planning document provided the first public look at what the Walt Disney Company thought was necessary if the Anaheim resort area was to survive and thrive. They tried to address the issues that they felt were important to the community at the time. Those issues include the revitalization of the city’s urban areas, modernizing and strengthening the regional circulation system, and boosting the local economy.

As I described earlier, Disney’s solution was to make the Anaheim Commercial Recreation Area, the special assessment district that includes the 550-acre Disneyland Resort, into a multi-day destination just like Walt Disney World. The plan was very comprehensive and included a number of features.

- Capital improvements to Disneyland that included the Indiana Jones Adventure and the creation of Toontown.

- A brand new theme park called WESTCOT Center, which was inspired by Epcot Center in Florida. The goal for WESTCOT Center was to celebrate our cultural diversity and those elements that truly connect us: Our humanity, our history, our planet, and our universe. The icon for the park would be a 300 foot gold sphere (Spaceship Earth in Epcot is 180 feet by comparison).

- The 21^st version of the hub would have been called the Ventureport. From this crossroads you could visit three different worlds; Wonders of Living, Wonders of Earth, Wonders of Space

- The World Showcase would not feature individual countries but regions of the world. The area would also be known as the Four Corners of the World and include Asia, Europe, The Americas, and Africa.

- The Resort Hotel District would add up to 4,600 new rooms to the Disneyland resort. The Disneyland Hotel would be reconfigured and renovated. The 800-room New Disneyland Resort Hotel (confusing?) will be based on the Hotel Del Coronado just like the Grand Floridian Resort in WDW. The Santa Barbara Mission would inspire The Magic Kingdom Hotel. The Beverly Hills Hotel would influence the 1,800-room WESTCOT Lake Resort.

- The Disneyland Plaza would connect the theme parks to the state-of-the-art transportation system and pedestrian path network. The seven-acre space was an attempt at a world-class public space.

- The Disneyland Center would connect the Resort Hotel District and the Disneyland Plaza. This shopping and dining district would inevitably morph into Downtown Disney. However, the shopping mall would surround a six-acre lake and be influenced by some of California’s most beautiful waterfront areas and coastal buildings like the Palisades, the Catalina Casino, the Venice Boardwalk, and Coronado Island.

- A 5,000-seat amphitheater called the Disneyland Bowl would be just outside the park gates.

- To house all of the cars, three huge parking structures would be built at the perimeter of the resort.

- There was also an area identified for future expansion with parcels of land not owned by Disney.

The Plan featured a sophisticated Intelligent Transportation Management system to reduce the impacts of auto congestion. Connections to existing and future regional transportation were also a feature of the Plan.

In order to fulfill the goal to revitalize the Commercial Recreation Area, the surrounding area would be enhanced and dubbed the Garden District. This would mean some roadway closures and realignments. Of course, this being California, an attempt to mitigate the environmental impacts of such an expansion would have to be dealt with.

Finally, the Plan reminds the policymakers of who is the economic engine that drives Anaheim’s tax revenues and how this expansion could only mean good news for Disneyland’s hometown.

Next week, I will dive into the Plan and explore what parts were implemented and which parts never made it off the drawing board.

A Walk Through the Park - Disneyland Resort Visit

Took advantage of a beautiful cloudy day to get to Disneyland very early Saturday, August 22. Made it to the garage by 730a and to the front gate a few minutes later. Although the gates were backed up well beyond the Monorail track, I took advantage of my little trick on how to move to the front of the line. It worked like a charm.

The day started off great. No traffic on the freeway and the absolute best parking space I have ever had since the park was configured this way in 2001. Amazing.

One relatively new enhancement to Tomorrowland is a a new sitting area around the giant balancing marble. When first conceived, this area was supposed to be an interactive fountain that created a water maze with the marble as the prize in the middle. Between the fountain breaking and constant use as a kiddie bathing pool, the fountains were turned off sometime ago. The marble sat all by itself.

Now they have surrounded the ball with planters with integrated seating wall. Great idea and even more so when the trees reach maturity.

We wants the Redhead! Hehe just love it.

Okay, everybody knows where this is right?

And they are getting older.

Walt Disney Family Museum Preview of Gallery 6

A big chunk of Walt's staff went to war. In fact, the studio was turned into a military base for awhile. The studio's proximity to the Lockheed Factory (now Burbank Airport now Bob Hope Airport) made it a valuable piece of property during the war. Walt's oversea business dried up and it was tough going.

The dreaded pink slip.

During this time Walt and his team went to South America. On that journey was one of Walt's favorite artists, Mary Blair. Ms. Blair is best known as the inspiration behind its a small world and so much more.

As we approach the October 1 public opening date of the Walt Disney Family Museum, I have the privilege of providing a sneak peak at Gallery 6. The focus of Gallery 6 is the late '30s to the mid '40s. Much of this story will focus on tough times at the Studio. World War II began just as he was hitting his stride in feature films. His mother passed away in the most tragic of circumstances and his father followed her shortly thereafter. A vicious strike at the Studio had Walt questioning the creative family that surrounded him. This is when he took a good will trip to South America and his brother and others sorted out the labor issues.

However, there was some good news. Dumbo was released and turned out to be a big hit. Such a simple film yet it touched so many. In retrospect, the military training films are amazing pieces of animation and the art of teaching.

The gallery will also feature photos and union flyers from the 1941 strike, samples of Disney films supporting the war effort, the famous military insignias that the artists created for our soldiers, and original artwork from Dumbo.

Next week we move into Gallery 7. Until then, visit the Museum's website and be sure to pick up your tickets as many days and time slots are already filling up. Memberships are an excellent way to go as well.

http://www.waltdisney.org

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Disney Design and the Process of Unfolding - Part 5

As Monty Python famously once said, “And now for something completely different”.

This series is my opportunity to explore my curiosity with the principles articulated in Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language and his latest work The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and The Nature of the Universe. I intend to use the Disney theme parks as my lab to better understand those principles. So please indulge me as I think out loud. You bought the ticket; let’s go for the ride.

Part One. Part Two. Part Three. Part Four.

There is much more to say about centers and how to identify which ones are in play within any given space. The familiar design patterns are combined and “plussed” as Walt Disney would say, to create a higher degree of life. That degree of life is measured by identifying what spaces as acceptable, regrettable or exceptional. To get there I need to understand how centers work.

Christopher Alexander makes five assertions about centers. To illustrate these assertions I will apply them to a place that may be familiar to many who would be reading this:

Imagine you are standing just in front of Blaine Gibson’s Partners statue at Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom?

1. Centers arise in space.

We have to start in a specific place. The Partners statue is at the center of a space called the Plaza Hub. Walt wanted a place to provided clear orientation and would allow for the various lands to radiate, like spokes of a wheel. The Plaza Hub was purposefully designed as a distribution point. The Plaza Hub’s function is at the heart of its design.

2. Each center is created by a configuration of other centers.

The plaza has a distinct boundary – the curb. That Plaza Hub is embellished with the roughness of the asphalt, which is distinctly different than the brick on the plaza. The statue provides a strong center. The entire space is framed by the gateways to the various lands and the effect of an outdoor room is heightened.

3. Each center has a certain life or intensity. For the time being we do not know what this life “is.” But we can see that the life of any one center depends on the life of other centers. This life or intensity is not inherent in the center by itself, but is a function of the whole configuration in which the center occurs.

An open plaza would be boring. Compare the Plaza Hub with traffic circle with minimal amenities or features a solitary piece of art. The element that breaks the Plaza Hub down is the planters. They create a median and the result is two distinct spaces. Along the outer ring are benches where people can rest and, at the same time, animate the space. The inner ring, near the statue, is much more intimate.

4. The life or intensity of one center is increased or decreased according to the position and intensity of other nearby centers. Above all, centers become most intense when the centers which they are made of help each other. Exactly what “helping” means in this context remains to be defined.

A great example of the intensity of a space is increased is the special relationship between the Plaza Hub and the castle. It goes well beyond being just open space. On one level you are moving from America in the early 1900s to a medieval fairy tale world just by crossing a street and it doesn’t feel odd at all. In fact, it feels reassuring.

5. The centers are the fundamental elements of the wholeness, and the degree of life of any given part of space depends entirely on the presence and structure of the centers there.

The Plaza Hub is a perfect spot to reflect on what Alexander is trying to describe. Quite simply the hub works because everything you see supports everything else you see. The more dominant elements only work because of the subtlest of supporting details. I like to use the Plaza Hub as one a standard to measure other urban spaces.

What I enjoy most is how this central space quietly communicates that you are at the starting point of unlimited opportunities with virtually no signage. The hub speaks an universal language understood by all. To the east is the future and to the west is the frontier. Go north and you enter a world of fantasy and childhood memories. Do you want adventure? It is around here somewhere.

Quite simply each center gets its life from other centers.