The last time Disney opened a theme park in California, Dwight D. Eisenhower was President, New York psychologist Joyce Brothers was a winner on The $64,000 Question and the Brooklyn Dodgers won the World Series. A generation of baby boomers who grew up watching "Walt Disney Presents" dreamed of Disneyland vacations and fantasized about adventures and castles and spinning teacups in Disney's magic land.
During Disneylandâs opening ceremony in 1955, Walt Disney said "Disneyland will never be complete as long as there is imagination left in the world". In 1995, Disney chairman Michael Eisner and a team of Imagineers and executives exercised their imagination during a three-day brainstorming retreat in Aspen, Colorado. The result was the concept for Disney's California Adventure. Five and a half years and $1.4 billion later (100x the cost to build Disneyland), Disney's California Adventure is a reality.
Disneyland was getting a new sister resort, Disney's California Adventure. Like parents faced with an expanding family, Disney had to find an place to put her. The challenge was huge - How do you find room for a new theme park, hotel and shopping area, more parking, fit it all into space already completely filled with an existing park and not disrupt normal operations while you do it?
The Olympics of Parking
Where was Disney going to put all the cars? The solution to the space dilemma was a vertical one. Disney's California Adventure now occupies the old Disneyland front parking lot, displacing over 5,000 parking places. With more spaces needed for the new park and no land available, the only way to go was up. The result is the new Mickey and Friends parking structure, with its 10,000 parking spaces making it the largest in North America. This colossus of parking, with 6 entrance lanes, 6 exit lanes, 10 toll booths and separate ramps leading to and from each of its 6 floors, is designed to park one car per second.
But the challenges only started with the parking, there was much more to be done at Disney's California Adventure.
How Do You Keep the Sun Shining?
The sun sculpture in the Disney's California Adventure entry plaza has a titanium coating that glows in the sun. The problem is - it faces AWAY from our glowing star. Undaunted, Imagineers designed a set of six computerized mirrors that track the sun and focus its rays onto the sculpture, keeping it sparkling as long as there's daylight.
Building a Mountain
The centerpiece of the Golden State area is a 150-foot tall mountain with a grizzly bear-shaped rock formation at its crest. How do you build an artificial mountain to look like a natural rock formation that just happens to resemble a bear? Models, computers and laser scanners came to the rescue, with the computer controlling the shape of the metal rebar framework to exactly duplicate the shape of the models. Wire mesh and hand-molded plaster complete the effect at Disney's California Adventure.
The Devil's in the Details
Disney's typical attention to detail is evident everywhere at California Adventure. For Condor Flats, the design team visited Edwards Air Force Base to duplicate the look of the legendary runway, down to the cracks and repairs. No detail is too small. Over at Paradise Pier, the screw patterns in the sidewalk exactly duplicate the ones at famous Coney Island.
It's Really Punny, Isn't It?
And someone must have stayed up late thinking of names. Keep your eyes open for monikers like Maliboomer (Malibu), clothing shop Man Hat 'n' Beach (Manhattan Beach), Taste Pilot's Grill, Hollywood and Dine, Engine-Ears Toys and Award Weiners.
Today, the Dodgers play in Los Angeles, we again have a Republican President and Regis Philbin asks Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. But one thing hasn't changed: Kids will still want to visit the new Disney theme park!
