Take a walk through this years Park and Resorts Pavilion at the 2011 D23 Expo as we look at all the new projects coming to the Disney Parks in the next few years. Video include interviews with Imagineers about the New Fantasyland in Florida, Cars Land and Buena Vista Street Coverage, and much more.
One of the great panels presented by Disney Parks and Resorts at the D23 Expo was “A Good Look at Buena Vista Street”. In this presentation, we were shown never before seen concept art and progress photos of the new entry way coming to Disney California Adventure next summer.
From Erin Glover on the Disney Parks Blog:
We are reaching another major milestone in the ongoing expansion of Disney California Adventure park. On Monday, August 29, the Sunshine Plaza area will close to allow crews to start the transformation of the current park entry into Buena Vista Street, reminiscent of what Walt Disney encountered when he first arrived in California in the 1920s.
While the shops will close to make way for Buena Vista Street, guests will continue to enter the park through the new Pan-Pacific Auditorium-inspired turnstiles and follow a temporary walkway which will feature renderings of the future Disney California Adventure park and connect the turnstiles with the Condor Flats area. This area will be the temporary entrance and exit for guests during the transformation of the former main entrance stores to Buena Vista Street.
This entry and exit location will remain in place until Buena Vista Street opens in 2012. To see what’s in store when this area opens, take a look at the renderings below, which were shown this past weekend at the Disney D23 Expo in Anaheim.
The rendering above shows the west side of Buena Vista Street, including the restroom area in the top image.
The next rendering shows the east side of the street. In the center image you can see the new merchandise location, Elias & Co., rising above the other buildings.
We’ll have more details on the Disney Parks Blog as Buena Vista Street continues to develop at Disney California Adventure park.
In between the hours of the D23 Expo, we did in fact take some time to visit the parks across the street. Photos include a Disneyland Hotel update, Cars Land, and much more…
Work continues on the Neverland Pool at the Disneyland Hotel
Read More about Conner Purzycki’s 8/18/11 – 8/21/11 DLR Photo Report
From Betsy Sanchez on the Disney Parks Blog:
I’m excited to share with you a very special donation that we recently made to Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, California.
As part of the expansion of Disney California Adventure park, the main entrance is changing and the cab of the California Zephyr train that most recently served as the location for Bur-r-Bank Ice Cream and Baker’s Field Bakery has been donated to the museum.
The train and related artifacts arrived at their new home August 6 and will become part of the museum’s Zephyr Project collection. Plans for a gallery dedicated to sharing the legacy of the California Zephyr are underway.
Visitors to the museum will learn about the history of the famous 1950s passenger train through the donated artifacts, while the recreated locomotive will offer the chance to experience what it was like for engineers to guide the stainless steel Zephyr trains through California’s Feather River canyon.
Fun Facts:
- The cab once operated as a real locomotive.
- It is an authentic rendition of the Western Pacific Railroad – one of the three railroads that operated the California Zephyr between Chicago and San Francisco from 1949 to 1970.
- It wears the same number as the last locomotive to lead a westbound California Zephyr into Oakland, Calif. on March 20, 1970.
- The California Zephyr is one of the most celebrated “name trains” of the 1950s and 60s.
Check out the video below to watch as the Zephyr begins to make its way to its new home.
DLNT Reporter Michael Wada took a visit to Disney California Adventure yesterday and captured a few newsworthy photos and also some very nice photos around Paradise Gardens.
Good Morning DCA
From Michelle Harker on the Disney Parks Blog:
I’m sure most of you know by now either from reading the Disney Parks Blog or visiting the Disneyland Resort, that the new entrance to Disney California Adventure park debuted just a few weeks ago. And I have to say it looks spectacular! A new entrance also means new stores… so I want to make sure that you have the latest and greatest information as we prepare for changes in the world of Disney Theme Park Merchandise.
Hop on board at Engine-Ears Toys before July 31. That’s right, in a little less than a week this “Engine-Ear” will leave its station and hit the tracks as we pave the way for an entire new set of stores set to debut in Summer 2012. So for those of you who love to create your own Mr. Potato Head, you better keep an “eye” out and a “nose” to the ground so you don’t miss out. But I’ll be around to lend you a “hand” and tell you where you can find them.
That’s not all… on August 28, we will also bid a fond farewell to our friendly store location, Greetings From California. While we are sad to see it go, I assure you that the stores taking its place, set to debut next year, will be the hit of the street and the talk of the town. But you’ll have to wait a few more months to find out more.
While I know it seems like there are a lot of changes underway, I promise you that we have many great things “in store” in the coming year. I look forward to sharing these great offerings with all of you in the coming months.
DLNT Podcaster Jae Brattain took a trip to the Disneyland Resort this weekend to celebrate’s the parks 56th anniversary. He also took some newsworthy photos to share…
Artist Robert Olszewski was doing a signing in the Disney Gallery on July 17th
From Erin Glover on the Disney Parks Blog:
As we mentioned on Friday, work began yesterday at Disney California Adventure park to transform the current Golden Gate Bridge at the park’s entrance into a re-creation of the historic Glendale-Hyperion Bridge. The rendering above shows what the new bridge will look like when it is completed as part of the new Buena Vista Street area.
This new area will bring guests back in time to a classic era in the history of Los Angeles – when Walt Disney first arrived in California. You will practically walk in his footsteps through an environment inspired by iconic Los Angeles buildings and structures of the 1920s and ‘30s, like the Pan Pacific Auditorium (which served as the inspiration for the new park turnstiles that opened on Friday) and the Glendale-Hyperion Bridge.
In early 1927, Walt and Roy Disney moved the newly renamed Walt Disney Studios into its new facility – a one-story, white stucco building at 2719 Hyperion Ave. During the next few years, another Los Angeles landmark was taking shape just a few blocks down Hyperion Ave. – the Glendale-Hyperion Bridge. The bridge is a large, complex structure – still standing today and spanning Interstate 5 from Glendale, Calif., to the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles.
The artist’s rendering above shows the bridge as it will look next year when it is part of Buena Vista Street at Disney California Adventure park, with the Southern California Red Car Trolleys passing underneath and the Carthay Circle Theatre in the distance.
From Erin Glover on the Disney Parks Blog:
As we’ve been sharing here on the Disney Parks Blog, there are even more changes coming for Disney California Adventure park over the next year – especially toward the front of the park. Today guests can see the first bit of this exciting makeover as we’ve just unveiled the brand-new turnstiles that will welcome them each day.
Inspired by the iconic Pan Pacific Auditorium, the turnstiles will set the stage for the new Disney California Adventure park entrance. Buena Vista Street will transport guests to Los Angeles as Walt Disney found it when he first arrived in California, with buildings inspired by structures that existed during the 1920s and ‘30s – including the Pan Pacific Auditorium. A landmark structure in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, the auditorium was the premiere location for indoor public events until it closed after almost 40 years in 1972.
Designed by the Los Angeles architectural firm Wurdeman and Becket, the auditorium itself was a modest wooden structure with seating for only 6,000 people; however, the building’s façade was hailed as one of the finest examples of Streamline Moderne architecture in the United States. The four stylized towers and flagpoles were meant to evoke upswept aircraft fins.
One of the principal architects on the Pan Pacific Auditorium, Welton Becket, was a neighbor of Walt Disney’s and went on to become very influential in future Disney projects. It was Becket who suggested to Walt that he use his own artists – not an architectural firm – to design, plan and build Disneyland, and it was this advice that led to the creation of WED Enterprises (now Walt Disney Imagineering). Later, Welton Becket Associates (formed in 1949 after Walter Wurdeman’s death) designed Disney’s Contemporary Hotel at the Walt Disney World Resort, though Becket himself did not live to see it completed.
On May 1, 1989, a nearly full-size replica of the Pan Pacific Auditorium façade opened as the main entrance to Disney’s Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Sadly, little more than three weeks later on May 24, the original building was destroyed in a fire.
As Buena Vista Street continues to take shape at Disney California Adventure park, there are more exciting transformations that will be taking place. On Sunday, the Golden Gate Bridge, which guests now pass underneath when entering the park, will begin to make way for a re-creation of the historic Glendale-Hyperion Bridge. We’ll have more details on this project next week on the Disney Parks Blog, so be sure to check back!
