DCA Facelift

[Sarangel]

From Al Lutz's MiceAge:

The DCA Placemaking project, which had its proverbial pause button pressed when major executive shakeups swept through Imagineering (WDI) and Burbank a few months ago, is now back on track. They've finally come to a decision about how to make over most of the DCA main entrance and entry plaza.

As we noted before the Golden Gate Bridge is out and set to be torn down, and design work on a Craftsman-style bridge to hide the monorail beam is still ongoing. The entire Sun Plaza area will be remade into a 1920's California Craftsman/Mission "village," and any facade in that area that doesn't currently have a Mission or Craftsman feel to it will be ripped down and replaced.

The plain, metal shade structures over the entrance turnstiles (above) will be rebuilt, and Craftsman style wood trellises are planned to be constructed in that area with flowering vines growing over the trellises.

The Greetings From California store (above) and the EnginEars Toys store (below) will be rebuilt and remade into the new Craftsman style. Most of the current train station area will remain, including the streamliner train, although the Santa Fe Station styled information booth that Guest Relations currently staffs (below) will be bulldozed.

The hubcap sun fountain (below) will be torn out, and in its place another new Craftsman structure will be constructed to house the new, smaller Golden Dreams theater that we'd told you about last year. In front of the Golden Dreams theater will be a new "transportation hub" themed as a 1930's Mission style bus depot. It's from this new building that DCA's new fleet of vehicles will arrive and depart, and currently they have plans for jazzy 1930's tour buses and open-top convertible limousines to shuttle visitors up and down the DCA parade route. The functions of the Guest Relations booth that was over near the train will take up residence in this new bus stop building.

The entire look of this new entry plaza area is supposed to look more traditional, more charming, and more literally themed to a specific time period, rather than the abstract and modern "hip" look that DCA opened with. Instead of throwing several different architectural styles and references in to the area, all clustered around a rather bland cement plaza with one of Disney's most unattractive pieces of artwork, the new DCA entrance is meant to evoke a return to California when Walt first arrived here and made a name for himself in the late 1920's and early 1930's. They are even designing in a specific location for DCA's own Christmas tree that would greet arriving holiday visitors front and center each year, much like the Town Square location Disneyland has for its famous Christmas tree.

This next round of Placemaking, on a much bigger scale than what was accomplished back in the Hollywood section before Monsters Inc. opened, will all get underway in the Fall. This entrance plaza project still has quite a few hurdles to get over though, not to mention the ego problem that still exists inside WDI and Burbank since the Imagineers have never had to go in and make these types of major physical changes to a five year old Disney park entrance before. But then, they'd never gotten it so wrong before, either. What's a bit disturbing is the rumblings that some suits in Anaheim and Burbank still don't quite get it, as this Placemaking project keeps having some of its most promising and costly aspects questioned by TDA people holding the purse strings.

WDI has been willing to eat some crow and admit DCA has major design flaws that need to be fixed if this park is ever going to succeed in the marketplace without 2fer tickets, but some in TDA are already trying to trim budgets and scale back the proposed design plans for the first big Placemaking project. Someone needs to tell the accountants that they got themselves into this mess by trimming and cutting and scrimping on DCA in the first place, and now that Burbank and WDI are both willing to go in and fix it this isn't the time to nickel and dime the thing to death all over again.

The penny-pinching we've heard coming out of the DCA Placemaking project is troubling, but hopefully saner heads will quickly prevail and the TDA accountants will be sent back to their cubicles.

 

[GrimGhost]

Sara, you may want to change the subject line..you have DCL, I think you meant DCA. I know for a second there, I thought the Cruise line was in for some changes.

 

[ChrisFL]

sounds like theyre really trying to fix things...good

 

[Sarangel]

Sara, you may want to change the subject line..you have DCL, I think you meant DCA. I know for a second there, I thought the Cruise line was in for some changes.

Thanks. I guess I have DCL on the brain on account of the Medeterranain Cruises and the one I'm going on in September.

Sarangel

 

[dbm20th]

And there was much rejoicing

 

[Sarangel]

And there was much rejoicing

Or there will be once they actually make it better. I've seen too many projects that were rumored to be greenlit (greenlighted?) that have failed to actually occur.

Sarangel

 

[Another Voice]

Or as someone else said of the entire Place Making project -

"All they're doing is spending an ***full of money to make a lot of nothing look a little bit better."

Honestly, the changes to the Hollywood section were unnoticable and essentially a waste. And while the enterance way is a complete disaster, I don't think as many people would care what it looked like as long as it lead to an attraction worth seeing. California Adventure is filled with cheap and unispired attractions. Painting the buildings isn't going to make the Whoopie movie anymore exciting.

 

[YoHo]

Which is the real problem. To truely fix the place, you need to do both. You need to fix the park's theme AND fix the lack of attractions.

 

[ChrisFL]

IMO it shows they realize there's issues with the park and they're trying to correct it...even if it's not the quickest process.

 

[daber]

And while the enterance way is a complete disaster, I don't think as many people would care what it looked like as long as it lead to an attraction worth seeing. California Adventure is filled with cheap and unispired attractions. Painting the buildings isn't going to make the Whoopie movie anymore exciting.

As an East Coaster, who visits LA once/yr and has one day normally to spend at DL, I have always opted for DL rather than DCA. This year was the first time in the gate, and only because I could park hop. DCA held/holds no appeal to me, other than Soarin' (which we now have in FL), California Screamin' and Grizzly Run Rapids. Yeah, the entrance is blah. But spending a boatload of money to fix it? Why waste the funds? California Screamin' was a disappointment and I probably won't ride it again. GRR was down, so still haven't done it. About the only thing I found that I liked was the Aladdin show. They really need to put attractions in the park that aren't things I can do at a Six Flags. That's why I go to Disney. JMHO

 

[Sleeping Jedi Beauty]

You've hit the problems at DCA right on the head. I really like the Golden Gate Bridge at the entrance and would prefer they keep it up. The big problem that DCA has is that they created a beach boardwalk, and those things are a dime a dozen, especially in southern California. What I think most people do is hop to DCA, and then hit Soarin', Screamin', ToT, Monsters, and GRR if it's open and good weather to go on, and then head back to DL. With FastPass, you can do all those rides in not much time at all, and then head back to DL. Theming will help to a point, but what DCA needs is good attractions. Why a 2nd carroseul? It's a clone of a ride that's already in DL. What's Disney about that gigantic ferris wheel?

One change they could make, but wouldn't cost much is to change the music you hear. Hearing oldies songs about California doesn't feel Disney. I think it would help if they would keep that style of music, but instead set Disney songs to to it. Even then though, the park still needs an overhaul. It wouldn't hurt to tear down everything over by the pier except for Screamin' and put in new Disney style attractions because all they have there now is a bunch of rides. Tap into the wealth of the creative legacy Walt left them. Make some dark rides based off recent classics like Beauty and the Beast or Little Mermaid. Make some great Disney themed restaurants. It's almost like DCA is an attempt to make a Disney park without Disney.

Having said all that, I don't hate DCA. I just find it to be a park not worth going to without a hopper even though ToT is my favorite Disney attraction. There's not enough attractions worth doing in there now and retheming won't help much.

 

[DannyDisneyFreak]

What is the "Mission or Craftsman feel" and "Craftsman-style" mean?

 

[YoHo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Style


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_movement

United States
In the United States, it spawned complementary and sympathetic American craft movements such as the "mission oak" style furniture embraced by Gustav Stickley, the Roycroft community, the "Prairie School" of Frank Lloyd Wright, the Country Day School movement, the bungalow style of houses popularised by Greene and Greene, and the contemporary studio craft movement. Studio pottery — exemplified by Rookwood pottery, Bernard Leach in England, and Pewabic Pottery in Detroit — as well as the art tiles by Ernest A. Batchelder in Pasadena, California, and idiosyncratic furniture of Charles Rohlfs also demonstrate the clear influence of Arts and Crafts movement. Mission, Prairie and the California Craftsman styles of homebuilding remain tremendously popular in the United States today.

Related to Frank Lloyd Wrigth's prairie school of architecture and popular during the Art Noveau and Art Deco periods. Typical accents would be built in stained wood cabinetry, stained or tiffany glass accents. And Arts&Crafts in California specifically tends to refer to smal bungalow houses done in this style.

 

[DancingBear]

The Gamble House is considered to be a prime example of the Arts and Crafts style:

http://www.gamblehouse.org/

And Julia Morgan's work includes many fine examples of Mission-style architecture, including the Examiner Bldg in LA:

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmexaminer/jmexaminer.html

and Hearst Castle (San Simeon):

http://www.hearstcastle.org/

 

[YoHo]

I didn't think San Simeon was so much Art&Crafts or misson, It's more Old World revival style.


I really which the construction companies out here would build more in these styles then just generic spanish style or generic generic housing.

 

[DancingBear]

Fair enough. Although many seem to refer to San Simeon as Mission style, see this from the Hearst Castle website:

The estate's magnificent main house, "Casa Grande," and three guest houses are of Mediterranean Revival style, while the imposing towers of Casa Grande were inspired by a Spanish cathedral.

Try this other Julia Morgan creation for Hearst:

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmjolon/jolon.html

 

[YoHo]

That ranch is definatly Mission style. Mediterranean revival is part of the Arts and Crafts movement, but It's not Mission style per se. I guess that's where my confusion comes from. It certainly qualifies based on when it was built.

Have you ever been? It's an Awesome place on the California riv.

 

[DancingBear]

When my Dad was in Vietnam, my mom, uncle, sister and I drove cross-country from Michigan's UP to my grandparents' in Costa Mesa (including, of course, a visit to DL). On the trip back, we stopped at San Simeon. My uncle and I were the only ones who got up for the early tour, and we ended up with a private tour. The guide even took us behind the ropes in a few places. Really cool.

 

[Greg K.]

Isn't the Grand Californian done in the "craftsman" style? I think that's closer to what they have in mind -- especially since it is one of the few elements of the new park that seems to be a success.

If more of DCA were done in that style, it would certainly help set it apart, and give a patina of class to what is, at bottom, an otherwise cheap and not all that exciting amusement park. (I'm not sure it merits even being called a "theme park" these days...)