Disney’s New Theme Park In Anaheim Tells A Tale Of California’s History
Disney parks. "This is not a shopping mall, nor is it like the downtownof Celebration," says Jaquelin T. Robertson, who was a consultant onthe project. Robertson encouraged Michael Eisner, Disney's CEO, to goto Copenhagen and visit the Tivoli gardens. Tivoli's magical combina-tion ol fountains, lights, and landscaping became the chief inspirationfor Downtown Disney's twinkling, gardenesque atmosphere.
The promenade ends in a large plaza outside the entrances to the twotheme parks. I spent an afternoon walking around the Sb-acre site ofDisney's California Adventure accompanied by Barry Braverman, theleader of the creative team for the park, and a group of his colleagues-an architect, a landscape architect, and two art directors. Walt Disneylmagineering has a staff of 2,000, and designs or oversees the designof theme parks, resorts, hotels, stores, ships, and office buildings-"everything that isn't movies," according to Braverman.
I had never been in a Disney park before, and I was impressed. Whilearchitects often talk about creating "environments," we are mainly inter-ested in making buildings. Not so here-every detail of the surroundingsis designed, including sounds and smells. Braverman points outthe red-dish tinge to the asphalt road that leads us through an area called HighSierras, the result of an aggregate that is characteristic of the mountainregion. The landscaping, carefully chosen to survive Southern California'sdry heat, completes the illusion. We traverse seamlessly to Cannery Row,a f unky group of waterside sheds. The water level in the putative tidalcanal, which f unctions as the overf low reservoir lor a nearby water ride,rises and falls realistically. On to Paradise Pier, a re-creation of a SouthernCalifornia seaside amusement park, where the booming surf crashesagainst the pilings, thanks to a hidden wave machine.
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