The Swan/Dolphin hotels have a theme even though most guests do not understand the whimical building s that were designed by Micael Graves.
Here is the story behind the Swan& Dolphin that was told by Michael Graves the designer to Wade Sampson staff writer for Mouse planet:
The "black box" area on the Walt Disney Dolphin that many Disney fans mistakenly believe was meant to be an entrance for the monorail similar to the Contemporary resort is actually the heart of a mountain. The Walt Disney Dolphin is a mountain that has struggled to thrust its way out of the tropical rain forest. That is the reason for the banana leaves painted along the side of the building.
The struggle caused the heart to explode, and the water cascades nine stories down the side of the hotel, passing through five clamshell basins to a fountain and eventually splashing into Crescent Lake. Notice that the walkway from the Walt Disney Dolphin to the Walt Disney Swan has railings and landscaping that mimic waves. The water splashes up onto the Walt Disney Swan and that accounts for the waves painted on the side of that hotel.
Two birds were so awed by this spectacle that they alighted on the top of the waves to get a better look and were magically transformed into swans. Graves deliberately selected two creatures that "were not part of the existing Disney mythology" but had hopes that they would then be developed further as Disney icons once he had selected them.
The dolphin image was inspired by the work of Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini. An example of Bernini's dolphins can be seen in the King Neptune fountain in the Italian pavilion at Epcot. However, there is a major difference that Graves pointed out to us. Bernini's dolphins had mouths that curved downward, and Eisner insisted that wasn't going to happen on Walt Disney World propertyso Graves' dolphins have their mouths curved upwards as if smiling.
Designed by Graves, the swan statues (like the dolphin statues) are created from steel, wood, and fiberglass, and were believed to be the largest structures of their kind in the world at the time. Since there were no existing samples to work from, Disney artist Gary Graham following Graves' design, sculpted the swan models out of Styrofoam and these were then computer photographed (photogrammetry) in a process that turns the shapes into a digitized database.
The photogrammetric information was then sent on to a shipbuilding company in Wisconsin. There it was put into a computer that automatically cut the wooden ribs to exact specifications and imprinted the ribs with numbers and location directions. The ribs were then delivered to the statue site, where they were fitted to a steel frame. Once assembled, a fiberglass covering was carefully brushed on and then covered with five layers of laminate. The swan statues were then sanded, painted and ultimately lifted into place on May 1989.
Completed, the swan statues, referred to as "heroic" statues, are 47 feet high. And at a combined weight of 56,000 pounds, they required a multi-ton 70-foot crane to lift them up atop the hotel. They were placed on specially constructed pedestals at either end of the hotel's roof, which support and display them.
The dolphin statues are 63 feet high and some Disneyphiles referred to them as "Flipper's Tomb" when they first appeared. All the roof sculptures are hollow inside, except for the structural beaming, and they have internal staircases and trapdoors for maintenance purposes.
At the Walt Disney Dolphin, the sculptures are three-dimensional where guests can't touch them and two-dimensional, like in the indoor fountain, where they can be touched. At the Walt Disney Swan, it is reversed and the sculptures are generally three-dimensional where they can be touched by guests (like the interior fountain), but two-dimensional (like the monkeys and parrots) where they can't be touched.
Where is the entrance to the Walt Disney Dolphin? No, it is not at the porte cochere (where cars drop off their passengers). It is facing the Walt Disney Swan.
The dolphins in the fountain facing the Walt Disney Swan were supposed to be three-dimensional, but Graves was told to space them out wider because they obstructed the view. Instead, Graves simply sliced the dolphins, making what he called "dolphin filets," and keeping them exactly where they were but opening up the space. He also made the fountain smaller since the dolphins are now two-dimensional and needed to be able to be touched.
When you enter a hotel, the check-in desk is usually on the right-hand side because most guests are right-handed. In the Walt Disney Dolphin it is on the left-hand side. The tent-covered rotunda is also disorienting without landmarks or icons for guests to determine which direction they need to go to get to their room. These were deliberate choices to create a sense of disorientation by Graves.
"It was to be a hotel for conventions and when you attend a convention, what do you want the participants to do? You want them to think differently, to see things from a different perspective. So the design is encouraging that," said Graves.
The Walt Disney Swan is completely different. The entrance is where the porte cochere is. The check-in desk is on the right hand side. The hallways are designed in an angular fashion so that is it easier to locate where you are and where you might want to go. Graves partnered with interior design firm of Wilson and Associates to create rich beach-themed color schemes, hand-painted murals, lily pond carpets, room doors painted to look like striped cabanas, sea shell light fixtures and more to capture the spirit of a playful tropical beach.
"Both inside and out, the hotel was designed to echo the tropical Florida landscape, as well as the fun and whimsy of the nearby Disney attractions and an aura of fantasy that appeals to guests of all ages," said Graves.
