Home

[Kristof]

Project Placemaking continues at Disney's California Adventure park.
The new Craftsman-style they're talking about, is a bit similar to the WDS Frontlot style and DCA Tower of Terror.

From 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 and the EnginEars Toys store 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 will be bulldozed.

The hubcap sun fountain 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.

http://www.miceage.com/allutz/al032106b.htm

[Anthony]

Tut tut, there's already a topic: viewtopic.php?t=615  :wink:

Tbh, the theme they've chosen for the entrance area sounds a bit dull...  I'm not sure if it's the best they could come up with.