For 15 years, Disney California Adventure Park has made it possible to experience the flair of beloved California locations, past and present. They’re not mere duplicates, but idealizations of the meaning—and feelings—they bring to life.
“Like Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland Park, our designs are romanticized,” says Ray Spencer, executive creative director, Walt Disney Imagineering. “We take the essence of the buildings and various elements that make up their personalities. We highlight certain things, like colors and textures, so their essences stand out.”
The park entrance is modeled after the fabled Pan-Pacific Auditorium. Designed by Welton Becket—one of Walt Disney’s personal friends—the massive venue presented the likes of Leopold Stokowski (four years before the release of Walt Disney’s Fantasia) and Elvis Presley. This “streamline moderne”-style entrance was first re-created at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida—just three weeks before the original building was destroyed by fire—and became the Disney California Adventure entrance in 2011.
The Buena Vista Street structures tell a chronological story, both inside and out. “When you enter the park, the buildings are a bit smaller and more neighborhood-like,” Spencer explains. “A five-and-dime store, gas station, chamber of commerce—these suggest being on the outskirts of town. As the Red Car Trolley takes you under the bridge, you’re downtown, at the department store, restaurant and theater. It’s subtle, but that was the thought behind how the buildings are arranged.”
The focal point in this journey is also a pivotal point in Disney history. The Carthay Circle Restaurant is inspired by the Hollywood theater of the same name. It was the glittering, glamorous location of the premiere of Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (just released on a stunning new Blu-ray combo pack, by the way). Snow White’s success changed the world of entertainment—and all the worlds of Disney.
The Hyperion Theater, in the park’s Hollywood Land section, was inspired by the Los Angeles Theater. Its construction in the early ’30s was funded in part by one of Walt Disney’s childhood idols, Charlie Chaplin, who opened City Lights at the theater. The original still stands in L.A.’s Broadway theater district, but with the exception of special events, it stands vacant. At its Disney California Adventure counterpart, a new musical adaptation of Disney’s Frozen will open later this year.
“All of the Los Angeles buildings that inspired the Hollywood Land facades can still be seen today,” Spencer explains. “Whereas none of the buildings represented on Buena Vista Street still exist today.”
In addition to specific California buildings, the facades and accents throughout the park suggest indigenous architecture, such as Mission Revival style for the Wine Country Trattoria and Blue Sky Cellar, and “textile block” patterns created by Frank Lloyd Wright that is captured in the look of the restroom area in Hollywood Land.
The park also sparkles with “buena vistas” beyond the brick and mortar of Los Angeles, from bustling towns to natural landscapes. There’s Route 66, which inspired the look of Cars Land, Fisherman’s Wharf, and Monterey’s Cannery Row, upon which Pacific Wharf was based, and more. But perhaps most magically for Disney fans like us, the storied California that greeted an optimistic young Walt Disney when he arrived with “a suitcase and a dream” will live on at Disney California Adventure Park. Nice to know.
