Q: I’m working on a book and exhibit for the Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles entitled “Never Built Los Angeles.” We’d like to find out more about the original plans for Disneyland, in Burbank. I understand the plan was submitted to city of Burbank in 1952. Can you help us find out more?
Sam, Los Angeles, California
A: There is a photo of the plan in Beth Dunlop’s book on Disney architecture, Building a Dream. Walt soon realized that there was not enough room on the six-acre plot of land to build all he wanted to build, so in 1953 he hired the Stanford Research Institute to find a larger site for Disneyland—their choice was Anaheim. Walt Disney Imagineering maintains all of the original plans for the park.
Dave Smith