ARCH560
From UANotebook
Contents |
Kroloff
- Kroloff, Reed. August 1997. Disney Builds a Town. Architecture. 86(8)114-118.
- NA1 J78 v.86 no.8
"In Celebration, 13-year-old Megan Mumey and her friends know the merchants at the corner store, and the merchants know Megan and her friends." (p.114)
compare to Georgetown new local grocery.
"a classic Disney confection: a community established by fiat, architecture lifted from early 20th-century pattern books, and the messy rancor of politics and social conflict banished. It is the Neotraditionalist stepchild of Walt Disney's earlier, futurist-inspired vision for an Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow."
"the sober town hall has no mayor or city council, and the nostalgic town seal is emblazoned with a corporate copyright."
p.116. people willingly moved into Celebration because of the Disney name... their reputation for quality. in short, they moved into a corporately controlled town because they believe in its narrative. "Rather that demonstrating a disturbing naivete, the sentiments of these and many other Celebration residents are an indictment of the American political and planning processes. The generally well-educated community is so frustrated with suburban banality and the benighted state of urban politics that they have opted out, and are willing to place themselves in the hands of a benevolent corporate dictator."
The plan is to cede more and more control to the residents as they buy more property and they become a minority shareholder. It is a system of power based on property values, however, and since the company owns the "public" spaces, it will always be a stakeholder.
Like much of Disney, it projects the image... the image of governance, near total control. But it doesn't actually have those, as they have been challenged.
Dunlop
- Dunlop, Beth. January 1996. "Designs on the Future". Architectural Record. 184(1)64-
- NA1 A6 v. 184 no. 1-4
neo-traditional town in the mold of Seaside, Florida; Kentlands, Maryland (a Duany, Plater-Zyberk joint); and Laguna West, California
architects Robert Stern and Jaquelin Robertson "even had a hand in the design of the light fixtures and street signs to be sure they 'say Celebration' at least symbolically." (p.65)
"a host of historicist Southern regional styles. Robertson terms this 'crossbreeding of architectural styles in America.' Modernism is noticeably absent; Stern and Robertson believe that American small towns lost their vitality after World War II." (p.65) Sterns: "we predicated our design on the notion that American towns had a life before the 1940s, basically, up to World War II, so the buildings take their inspiration up the 1940s" (p.67) Dunlop: "hybrid American style that conjures up lots of non-specific memories."
It has a Post Office next to the town hall. And Venturi and Scott-Brown are designing a bank.
p.66: "one young employee--armed with a recent master's in architecture and a camera--was sent off to photograph every appealing building or public space he could find in historic towns in the Southeast."
Disney owns all of the "public" space.
excellent description on p.68 of Disney's futuristic vision for the community, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. under a glass dome and with monorails... sleek and hermetic. the idea died with him in 1966... resurrected as a neo-traditional village of the past!
Beardsley
- Beardsley, John. February 1997. Landscape Architecture. "A Mickey Mouse Utopia".
SB469 L3 87(2)76-83,92
p.79
"an instant old-fashioned community of the chatting-over-the-garden-fence, bring-your-neighbor-a-pie variety". Beardsley says "Disney is now selling themed living."
- 4,900 acres planned for 20,000 residents, $2.5 billion cost
- managed by The Celebration Company
"Housing, which can be had in one of four price groupings... and in of six architectural styles ("Classical, Victorian, Colonial Revival, Coastal, Mediterranean, and French") is being built in accordance with a pattern book prepared by Urban Design Associates of Pitttsburgh."
Duany and Plater-Zyberk were early advisers. The town is based on their traditional neighborhood developments. Most houses have front porches and are built close together, and to the street, to encourage walking. "In an effort to achieve some diversity the town center features shops with apartments above." (p.78) Some houses include rental units and some live-work spaces would be permitted.
p.92 "Celebration is a village in which 'community' is being created not through unscripted social interactions but by corporate fiat. Using a pattern book, various covenants, and the homeowners' association, Disney is reaching into the yards--even into the houses--of Celebration residents to regulate the kind of environment they will inhabit and, indirectly, to shape the kind of lives they will lead. Admittedly, this is standard operating procedure for planned communities these days."
p.92 "'We have played social engineers,' Celebration architect Stern observes. 'We hope it succeeds.'"
Not just about social policy/engr, the corporation exerts a considerable amount of political and property control. Ironic considering that Disney got County rules relaxed (CITE?)
p.93 Landscaping is rigorously controlled, as a fence heights. "The pattern-book prescriptions strike me as part of a larger emphasis on regulation and conformity."
Declaration of Covenants includes:
- no more than two people may sleep in a bedroom
- no pickup trucks, mobile homes, or boat trailers may be parked in front
- any dog or cat deemed a nuisance may be removed
- one garage sale per year
- only one 18x24 political sign, must come down 2 days after election
Moreover, the Company retains veto power over any action or policy of the association. At this point, there is a two-tier system of control, the association and the corporation which, for all practical purposes, has supplanted municipal authority. In fact, when it opened, the town hall contained merle offices for the association and the development office and nothing of the "messy debate typical of American public life." (p.93) One wonders where county and state jurisdiction figures into this milieu, and whether either have the clout to tangle with Disney.
But this is not the case of the draconian corporation exerting its muscle...
Development Director and architect Joe Barnes are unapologetic about the level of control, citing that people willingly buy into this situation. Indeed. "What Celebration confirms, in other words, is not merely that corporations are going into the business of providing privatized, commodified versions of community, but that a market exists to consume them." (p.93) Disney was betting that people would gladly accept this control as long as it meant that they were shielded from certain, inconvenient parts of city life... the "messy" parts as Jane Jacobs might say.
"instant and--so far--ersatz history and community over the admitedly problematic but vital traditions of civic life."
But that was c.1996 thinking, when the town first opened for business. As with any social situation... Bartling's resistance goes here
use this to critique both Celebration and DuPont
- p.93 "same old sprawl tarted up in an old-fashioned disguise
- more critiques about lack of transit
- "fails to dislodge the tyranny of the automobile over suburban life"
- Bartling: Duany/Plater-Zyberk and Celebration are very suburban, not urban
Notes on old style "company town" to new style of "company town"
beyond new urbanist design
also a social experiment
mention cornerstones? (Bartling)
Florida Hospital
It is a 60-acre "health campus" that includes a 40,000 sq. foot sport and health club. (Beardsley, p.78)
The hospital is a particularly interesting case because of the discourse swirling about it. It is no ordinary hospital; rather, the alleged focus is on the healthy as well as the inform.
Seventh Day Adventist... very sanitarium like!
Education
The Celebration School spans kindergarten through 12th grade. It was built to "offer a special curriculum devised by a panel of educators from around the country, and Stetson University will operate a teaching academy there that will enable teachers and administrators to learn and critique new ideas in education." (Beardsley, p.83)
