| # | Author | Message |
1
| ArchtMig
Tue 5/13/2008 12:41a | Darkbeer, your blog links to some articles describing the proposed expansion of the convention center. While I understand the need to add square footage in order to keep some of their biggest and most lucrative annual shows coming back, I am very concerned that the expansions are going to rise high adjacent to Katella, and be visible from within DCA. Bad enough that we still have to see the roofs of the convention center buildings, and it doesn't look like Disney is going to do anything about that anytime soon. I don't think the trees that Disney planted around the perimeter of DCA along Katella (as claimed by Marcie), are the type that will grow tall enough to block anything visually. Or at least, it would take a hundred years for those trees to get that big if they ever do. But this new expansion of the convention center really scares me. Darkbeer (or anyone), can you bird dog this issue and get a sense of the impacts of the expansion options on DCA visually? |
2
| TP2000
Tue 5/13/2008 1:42a | The OC Register had a story about these new Convention Center hotels and expansion. Only the Garfield Traub proposal seems to be tall enough and directly bordering Katella that it would be visible from inside DCA. Even the new Radiator Springs Racers mesa rockwork probably isn't tall enough to hide the 10 story tall Garfield Traub proposed hotel. Here's the link to the Register story, with the Garfield Traub proposal the second picture in the photo link attached to the article... http://www.ocregister.com/arti...-exhibit
As for something "Marcie" said.... HAHAHA! Marcie is dead and gone, a ghost of that dead website that came back from the grave only to die a more painful death the second time. I never trusted Marcie because of her scornful wit and mean spirited nature aimed at anyone who dared question her. Good riddance to old ghosts from the past. |
3
| jmuboy
Tue 5/13/2008 8:06a | This continued growth in and directly around the DL Resort is only good news for Disney and us Disneyland fans. While it has been slow to evolve, the Anahiem resort seems to finally be getting the steam in the last couple of years it should have gotten in the late 90's. Yes, its eight or so years late - but better late than never as they say!
|
4
| Hans Reinhardt
Tue 5/13/2008 9:56a | "I am very concerned that the expansions are going to rise high adjacent to Katella, and be visible from within DCA."
I wouldn't really worry about this since anything built there would be subject to environmental review. Given Disney's weight in Anaheim the company will likely have some say on any visual intrusion caused by new buildings constructed along DCA's perimeter. |
5
| ArchtMig
Tue 5/13/2008 12:04p | >>>Given Disney's weight in Anaheim the company will likely have some say on any visual intrusion caused by new buildings constructed along DCA's perimeter.<<<
Don't be so sure that Disney would even bother to fight it. They sure didn't care one wit when they desinged DCA in the first place, and even though that crowd of dunderheads is mostly gone now, I'm guessing that the current Disney would place a higher value on the extra bodies that the expanded convention center would guarantee than the additional visual intrusions upon DCA that those same expansions would probably also guarantee. |
6
| Hans Reinhardt
Tue 5/13/2008 12:31p | "They sure didn't care one wit when they desinged DCA in the first place..."
Well, that's a completely different argument.The only thing that I'll say about that is that the convention center and adjacent buildings were there long before DCA was built, so there weren't a whole lot of options available to hide them.
What we are talking about now are new buildings going up that will be subject to public review. With all that Disney has invested in DCA it would be unthinkable for the company to not be the least bit interested in what gets built across the street. |
7
| bean
Tue 5/13/2008 5:32p | I wouldn't put to much worry on the convention expansion.
Like someone mentioned the expansion is needed to help keep the resort growing.
The biggest siteline obstacle right now is right behind Paradise pier specifically behind Screamin' queue.
The other visual intrusion should be mostly resolved as expansion to the park continues |
8
| ArchtMig
Tue 5/13/2008 11:07p | >>>...the convention center and adjacent buildings were there long before DCA was built, so there weren't a whole lot of options available to hide them.<<<
Yes there certainly were options. Westcot was very carefully planned to eliminate all visual intrusions, including what is now known as the Paradise Pier Hotel, which wasn't even owned by Disney back then. Pressler, Braverman and Co. took the cheap and lazy way out and celebrated the visual intrusions as part of the character of the park.
>>>The biggest siteline obstacle right now is right behind Paradise pier specifically behind Screamin' queue.
The other visual intrusion should be mostly resolved as expansion to the park continues<<<
That big grey hotel at the southeast corner of Katella and Harbor, the roof of the convention center, and that huge ugly monstrosity that looks like an oversized cylindrical tomato climbing trellis are all easily visible from within DCA, and you don't need to get up on the ferris wheel, or Screamin', or the steps of the Hyperion to see them. Those are not now, nor any time in the near future, going to be hidden from view. The new mountains at Cars Land will hide the power lines towers, but will do nothing to hide the built forms leaking into the park from across Katella. Nor do I believe that anything they are likely to do to the Screamin' queue (if they ever do anything at all), will completely hide all that junk either. |
9
| Hans Reinhardt
Wed 5/14/2008 10:19a | "Yes there certainly were options. Westcot was very carefully planned to eliminate all visual intrusions..."
Yes, and based on the concept art that park appeared to be very compact and claustrophobic with no room around it's perimeter to expand. I'm sure it would have been nice, but Disney would have had to sacrifice the expansiveness of DCA for the sake of blocking out everything across the street from the park by constructing show buildings all around the edge of the property
Here are some artist concepts that illustrate my point:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi...ting.jpg
http://webcot.free.fr/articles...ring.jpg
All things considered I think that DCA's layout (which basically ignored the external buildings off site) was the best solution for long term growth. Like Bean said, today the most obvious visual intrusions are only along the south side of the park behind Paradise Pier.
Again, I don't see any reason to be alarmed about any new developments around the convention center right now.
|
10
| ArchtMig
Wed 5/14/2008 11:43a | >>>Again, I don't see any reason to be alarmed about any new developments around the convention center right now.<<<
Is that because you don't really care about the visual intrusions that we have now??
I think those of us that ARE concerned should be afraid, very afraid, of any proposed new developments that run right up to Katella. |
