Disney's Hollywood Studios

For the past week and all of this week I have been stationed at Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.  Where as Blizzard Beach had one resident gardener, Hollywood Studios has several that specialize in specific areas / sections of the park.  I'll be rotating throughout the park for my entire stay at Hollywood Studios.  This allows me, and fellow interns, a chance to see nearly every aspect of the park in just two short weeks.

Hollywood Studios has been a much different experience from working at the Disney water parks.  Larger, more complex tasks must be completed in an even shorter amount of time in the early hours of the morning.  This creates a sense of urgency that makes achieving perfection in the park before the gates open each day at 9:00am very fun.

On the first day at Hollywood Studios I worked with Mariana.  Moving with quick speed we started off the day at 4:30am.  One of the first tasks we completed included tending to the hanging baskets along Hollywood Boulevard.  This area of the park is an amazing recreation of the streetmosphere during the golden days of Hollywood.  I learned through Mariana that hanging baskets are not a simple as they may seem.  There is a true science and art behind creating and maintaining the baskets for months at a time along with Florida weather.  Between sunlight, location, color, irrigation, position, themeing, and lifespan, many factors are taken into account when dealing with handing baskets.  No baskets can ever fail due to a limited supply of backups.  Hollywood Studios has the most hanging baskets / potted planters out of any Disney park totaling nearly 600  individually. All 600 baskets and pots are maintained by hand and monitored each day.  

Hollywood Boulevard
hanging baskets. 

Other areas that I worked with Mariana included Hollywood and Vine restaurant, 50's Prime Time Cafe restaurant, Echo Lake, Sorcerer's Hat Plaza, The Great Movie Ride Plaza, and The Golden Globes Plaza.  Each area has its own unique feel and themeing that must remain true to its intent each and every day.

I have also worked with Ralph who is another resident gardener at Hollywood Studios.  Ralph works mainly with special projects that come up and must be addressed in a timely fashion.  One project I worked with Ralph on included interior plants.  Several buildings throughout Disney's Hollywood Studios have elaborate indoor landscapes that require attention just as outdoor landscapes do.  We assessed several buildings and determined what to replace and what the new designs should be.  I was not familiar with the world of interior plants, but I have learned they are just as exciting as outdoor landscapes.  Also working inside many studio lot buildings, such as Feature Animation and Operations Management, was an awesome experience. Another project I worked on with Ralph included a quick rehab of the Animation Building courtyard.  We quickly designed and installed a coral stone pathway, shrub plantings, and installed new sod.  The project took just one short day and looked great!  

Before.

After.

Another gardener I worked with was Andy.  Similar to Mariana, Andy had specific sections of the park that we tended to on a daily basis. Watering, planting, and maintaining the theme of place were our priorities.  Andy also taught me about micro-climates throughout the park.  It was neat to learn how the similar landscapes react differently in specific sections of the park.  Sometimes the positioning difference of 2 feet can determine the successful or unsuccessful life of a landscape.  Specific areas I worked on with Andy included Crossroads of the World (aka entrance plaza), Sunset Boulevard, Tower of Terror, Victory Garden, and Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular.  All areas were very different and taught me new methods of designing landscapes with operations/maintenance in mind.  

                                                   

One other gardener I worked with was Joe.  The main areas I focused on with Joe included the main entrance plaza for Hollywood Studios, Theater of the Arts (aka Beauty and the Beast), and Rockin' Rollercoaster courtyard.  

 

Lastly while at Hollywood Studios I worked with Jeff who is one of the irrigation managers for the park.  I spent one day job shadowing and experiencing what it takes to operate and maintain such an expansive and complex irrigation system.  I learned about rapid responding techniques and how problems can be detected and properly managed in a timely order to ensure that minimal impact is made on the daily irrigation schedule.  A large amount of investigating is required when dealing with irrigation, because many times the problem is not visible.  Because of this Jeff taught me some various techniques to determine what is taking place beneath the surface.  We also tested certain irrigation sections via remote control which was very neat. With Jeff, I also learned how the relationships between Irrigation Professionals and Landscape Architects are managed throughout new installations. 

Spending two weeks at Hollywood Studios was a very fun experience and I learned so much in such a short time.  Being exposed to the atmosphere at this park has taught me so much about the relationships between the design of space and how space is maintained.  It has also made me appreciate the 24/7 effort that goes into maintaining such a beautiful park.  It takes an unbelievable amount of workers and dedication to achieve perfection every single day of the year.  I'll miss everyone at Hollywood Studios, but the future looks bright as I'll be moving to Disney's Animal Kingdom in just a few short days! 

Blizzard Beach

For the past several days I have been stationed at Disney's Blizzard Beach water park.  Built in 1995, Blizzard Beach was Disney's second water park in operation.

Blizzard Beach was "built on the premise that a freak winter storm hit Florida, leaving behind a mountain of snow on Disney's west side [...] Blizzard Beach was created, full of entertaining landscape contradictions" as describe by the show quality theme statement.  

The show quality statement is produced when the concept of the park is created to help guide the construction and to also establish strict order in the general themeing through out the park for many years to come.  The statement was shown to me by Dana who is the garden specialist for Blizzard Beach and also the person I worked with for the past seven days.  He showed me this statement to help me understand the landscape and how it is maintained.  The landscape is constantly evolving through natural growth, so the statement helps us with the judgment of maintenance decisions and new plantings.  

With this theme statement in mind Dana and I worked together through out the park on tasks similar to what I completed at Typhoon Lagoon several days ago.  We completed tasks that dealt with planting, irrigation, and maintaining original design intentions.  

Working at Blizzard Beach was a great experience and I learned a lot from working with Dana on his daily tasks.  It was neat to experience both water parks at Disney and to see how different each was from each other, one was tropical and the other a snow storm!  

In the mean time its time to leave Blizzard Beach and head over to Disney's Hollywood Studios tomorrow!  I'll be stationed there for 2.5 weeks working with Ryan, another professional intern, and the six garden specialist that work there.  It should be another great experience!

Ohh... and the sunrises from the top of Summit Plummet.... its a "Disney" sunrise for sure. (insert Lion King music!)

To the Roundhouse!

Recently Jesse and I landed a backstage tour of the Walt Disney World Railroad where we visited the roundhouse, learned the history of the steam trains at Magic Kingdom Park,  how the steam trains function / operate 365 days a year for 12+ hours each day and lastly learned of Walt's love for steam trains and the influence they had on his life.  After all Mickey mouse was created on a train, and we all know where the world would be if this did not happen...

We arrived to the Magic Kingdom early to begin the tour.  It made for some awesome photo opportunities with a Florida sunrise:

At the roundhouse:

Roommates!

They let us into the train cab! We really are just grown up kids:

The tour was a lot of fun and a good way to spend a day off!  Over the summer we will be going on many more backstage tours.  We just completed one at the Horticulture center which will be posted soon. 

  

Typhoon Lagoon

For the past week I have been stationed at Typhoon Lagoon water park working with John, who is the garden specialist for that area.  We worked together on many projects around the park throughout the week and I also completed some field study work while in the park.  It was a fun week and I learned so much about the beauty, functionalism, and layout / design of Typhoon Lagoon.

A little history... Typhoon Lagoon opened up back in 1989 as Disney World's first water park.  The water park is extremely popular and today it remains one of the most visited water parks in the world.  Typhoon Lagoon also holds many records for it's attractions making it a very unique place, such as creating one of the largest artificial waves in the world (seen below).  The theme of the water park tells the story of a  tropical storm that swept through the area leaving boats atop mountains, debris, leaning buildings, and white sandy beaches behind.

All Disney parks are built to tell a story (aka the concept of place).  Through the use of elaborate design techniques this can be accomplished, however maintaining the story requires specific attention to details and original design techniques in order to "preserve" the same quality of show each day and each year long after a park has originally opened.  This is where my learning and experience took place at Typhoon Lagoon.  John (Typhoon Lagoon's garden specialist) and I worked together to maintain the quality of show through a variety of ways.  Together we designed new planting layouts as needed throughout the park, ensured "viewsheds" (aka lines of sight) throughout the park were clear, and ultimately  maintained the park setting by understanding the design intentions.  Maintaining a jungle?  This is where difficulty can take place because the park must look un-maintained, but at the same time must be maintained within the quality of show guidelines.

Along with working with John I also completed some field study work.  This is where I personal documented design techniques throughout the park to better understand what approaches were taken to design this theme park.  These quick sketches help designers understand the sense of place and simple characteristics that make a place what it is.

To start off, the entrance sequence to Typhoon lagoon begins with pathways that are condensed in size and view to bring the viewer to a more open area that reveals the water park before them.  This quick section sketch shows the the entrance pathways leading to the "entrance plaza":

After traveling trough the entry path visitors are exposed to many great views of the park and its icon mountain.  They then proceed into an area I call "the wonder".  This is a rather confusing set of pathways that moves creates unique movement patterns thus exposing visitors to the various offering in the area and ultimately leading them to the entry bridge that reveals a majority of the park once again.  This diagram shows the general layout of the "entrance plaza" to Typhoon Lagoon:

Typhoon Lagoon was also designed with a "lazy river" that circles the outline of the park.  The topography around the lazy river creates great views into the park, and its signature large wave pool from several locations. This next section shows the general use of topography around the lazy river that circles the entire park:

When a bridge is needed to cross the lazy river no stairs are required through the use of subtle topographic changes.  This also creates zero grade entry into sandy seating areas.  Here is a diagram of a reoccurring topographic theme throughout the park along the lazy river:

Lastly one of my favorite eating / seating areas in the park is the "Leaning Palms Restaurant".  This carefully designed seating area provides opportunities for seclusion, but yet views of activity at the same time.  A combination of views, privacy, shade, and multiple levels of seating make it an overall great space.  Here is a section drawing of this place:

Overall it was a fun week at Typhoon Lagoon and this week I will be stationed at Blizzard Beach where I will work with Dana who is the garden specialist for that park. The hours we all work are very early (3:00am to 4:30am) but that provides for a unique experience of walking parks empty and catching the sunrise!  Goodbye Typhoon Lagoon, onward now to Blizzard Beach.