Volume 1, Issue 7, 2018
Reveries of Florida’s Past: event. At the time of the ceremony, Documenting Historic & Imagined signs on I-4 already marked the way Florida to the new community with a
dedicated off-ramp opening the F. Evan Nooe, UNC-Charlotte following month (Bevil 2015). The
community’s historic roots parallel the
development of numerous others At a September 2015 waterfront spread across the state as it grew celebration along Village Lake, from modest hamlet to bustling city. Floridians gathered to christen a new Just before the Civil War, South township founded in 1850. The Carolina settlers happened upon an naming ceremony was complete with Edenic natural spring and the Sinclair an emcee, magician, media, and family established a homestead along business leaders coming together at the water. As throughout the state, Waterview Park to commemorate the the industries that define Florida’s
past found a footing. The Sinclair’s Downtown Disney. Though narrated established a successful cattle ranch. by the company as a historic Florida In 1868 a timber company set up town, the location dates to 1975 and shop. Later, a bottling company began has always been a retail, dining, and packaging and distributing the fresh, entertainment complex accompanying natural spring water. At the start of the Walt Disney World Resort theme the twentieth century, the township parks and hotels (Kurti 1996, 68). welcomed municipal facilities. In 1901 The current iteration of Disney’s a new power plant electrified the commercial complex looks to Florida’s town. By 1908, the first fire past as a means to culturally anchor department was watching over the the development in Central Florida residents. When the town celebrated and inspire the space’s fictional their centennial in 1950, residents narrative. When initially announcing could look back and admire their the project, Disney Chief Operating idyllic community with its Officer Tom Staggs described the core Mediterranean inspired fountains and of Disney Spring’s storyline as plazas, craftsmen style bungalows, representing “a timeless and vibrant expanding industrial diversification, place that celebrates turn-of-the- and bustling transportation hub century lakeside towns that dotted the complete with marina, airport, and Florida landscape” (Staggs 2013). To train station. achieve such a goal, Disney designers, The establishment of a town with or “imagineers,” constructed the more than 150 years of history in façade of a historic Florida town 2015 isn’t the result of a repurposed as a retail space. Upon chronologically challenged citizenry or completion, The Walt Disney Company some recently discovered oversight in describes Disney Springs as “a the municipal incorporation process. bustling metropolis of shopping, Known as “Disney Springs,” the site is dining, and entertainment locations” the product of The Walt Disney (Disney Springs: Fast Facts, Fun Company’s themed design and Facts) with four distinct storytelling at its redesigned retail neighborhoods representing various complex along I-4 formerly known as eras of the town’s historic progression.
During the construction of Disney architectural features to artificially Springs and since its completion, aged graphics as a method to visibly spokespeople for The Walt Disney and tangibly illustrate the fabricated Company and marketing content historic narrative of the retail emphasize producing an accurate complex. The resulting visual plane portrayal of Florida. For example, engages visitors by placing them in a Theron Skees, Executive Creative fictionalized and coordinated physical Director, focused on how the company space known as a “hyperreality,” was “committed to deliver something inspired by the reveries, or fanciful as authentic as possible” (qtd. in manifestations of “daydream Jones 2016). Similarly, Editorial demands” (Eco 1986, 44), of real and Content Manager Jennifer Fickley- historic places from across the state of Baker of the Disney Parks Blog Florida. What follows is an effort to described Disney Springs as a creation document the borders and blurring of that “immerses guests into the rich the real and the hyperreal reveries of cultural heritage and natural beauty of Florida’s past at Disney Springs. Florida through unique architecture, color, schemes, horticulture, and Method and Sources: more” (Fickley-Baker, 2016). Again, The following fourteen Creative Director, Dave Hoffman photographic displays document the emphasized how Disney Springs various manifestations of historic reflects Florida’s past over the last Florida places and their hyperreal 150 years “and all the details reflect counterparts at Disney Springs. The authenticity” (qtd. in Dowling, 2016). displays make use of archival historic In the emphasis on recreated photographs of Florida dating back authenticity and accuracy, Jean more than a century and modern Baudrillard theorizes such an effort photographs of Disney Springs over “threatens the difference between true the last two years. The resulting and false, the real and the imaginary” collages seek to draw attention to the (1994, 3). Throughout Disney Springs’ real and historic places of Florida that neighborhoods, visitors encounter a have become representative of the plethora of immersive details from state’s true past alongside their
touristic counterparts as constructed Cyber-Shot DSC-HX5V with a 10.2- by The Walt Disney Company. Side by megapixel resolution and fixed 10x side, we can contemplate how Florida wide-angle optical zoom lens. continues to be packaged and Photographs from 2018 were taken romanticized in popular culture and using a Canon PowerShot G7 Mark II what is selectively providing the with 20.1-megapixel resolution and a fodder for such perceptions. The result fixed 4.2x optical wide-angle zoom is a photographic exploration of what lens. The Walt Disney Company is The manipulation of digital constructing and presenting to photographs was kept to a minimum thousands of consumers and how such where possible. Digital alterations a presentation is shaping what is include cropping images to focus on recognizably Florida. specific design features. Other forms of digital manipulation included On Photography & Historic reducing or stretching an image’s size Photographs to aesthetically fit within displays. Historic photographs are sourced Digital files, both modern and from the digital collections of the historical, were JPEGs when Florida Memory, Florida Photographic incorporated into displays and the Collection at the State Library and collective collages are produced as Archives of Florida and the Library of JPEGs as well. Congress Prints and Photographs Locating images in the Florida Division Washington, D.C. The Photographic Collection and the selected historic photographs are Library of Congress consisted of digital duplications incorporated into utilizing archival terminology single displays organized by subject categorized through the Catalogue of and topic. Modern digital images used Subject Terms, Geographic Terms, in this project come from photographs and Personal Subjects and keyword taken by the author in the summers of searches and phrases relevant to the 2017 and 2018 using two consumer project. In researching various grade digital cameras. Photographs elements of Disney Springs, the from 2017 were taken using a Sony current project used more than fifty
distinct search terms. Search terms based on their associated focused on the function of structures neighborhood in Disney Springs. such as “Fishing Camps,” specific locations like “Church Street Station,” Historic & Imagined Spaces or prominent Florida developers such as “Rudolph, Paul.” Some terms generated overlapping results such as “Mizner, Addison, 1872-1933” and “Worth Avenue,” however most searches produced unique results. Consequently, more than 5,000 historic photographs were examined for the project. The Springs The photographic arrangements The cool, fresh water springs of are organized by subject pertaining to Florida have drawn explorers, architectural styles, specific places, migrants, and tourists for centuries. and building functions. In total, fifty- The fabricated, chemically treated seven images make up the fourteen springs at the center of Disney assemblages. Thirty-six images come Springs provides the impetus for the from the historic photograph origin of the town’s fictional narrative. collections at the Florida Memory As mentioned, the discovery of the Collection and the Library of Congress. springs in Central Florida inspired The remaining twenty-two included settlers to establish a homestead in images are modern photographs. The 1850. Afterwards, businesses displays all maintain the original color prospered, new entrepreneurs came scheme of incorporated photographs. to town, and Disney Springs evolved In most displays, the modern with the state of Florida over time. It photographs of Disney Springs will be is unlikely a modern-day visitor will evident to viewers due to disparities in miss the namesake of the retail color and image clarity. The displays complex. are arranged throughout the essay The spring at the center of Disney Springs makes a functional distinction
as purely for visual appreciation. It to dissolve the distinction between has multiple pedestrian bridges reality and hyperreality. Disney crossing the waterway and walking designers describe the construction of paths around its perimeter but no the spring as using “various shades of direct interaction between tourist and bright glass pieces as accent colors to water. Famously, The Walt Disney make the springs glitter,” World Resort has crafted waterborne incorporating nearby live oak and attractions featuring jungle cypress trees into the design of the adventures, pirate encounters, and spring’s bank, and sculpting the riverboat rides. The resort has also concrete bottom to add depth to the utilized naturally occurring, through waterway (Fickley-Baker 2016). Still, manually enhanced, waterways to the manufactured spring borders the provide added methods of natural waterway of Village Lake. The transportation to travel across the contrast between artificial spring and sprawling property. With such a the natural lake visibly underscore the differentiation, the spring of Disney presentation of reverie and reality at Springs therefore functions solely as a Disney Springs. visual marker to enhance the narrative of the space’s fabricated past.
Reveries alongside The Springs
As the retail complex’s centerpiece, the shore of the artificial waterway borders each of the four neighborhoods of Disney Springs.
Along the banks of the spring, three Disney’s undertaking to manufacture structures break with the overarching an authentic Florida spring attempts design of the neighborhood they are in
to connect with the spring as a point described the area as designed “to of the community’s conception. In The serve guests of the community, as Landing, a restaurant personifies a well as residents and travelers Florida fish camp set alongside the through the Central Florida region” spring’s bank. In the Town Center, (Lakeland Ledger, 1975). The retail another restaurant presents as a center offered 29 shops and four rustic Cracker homestead. The restaurants. Initially, the complex information and guest services center provided 648 parking spaces and for Disney Springs is in a “wooden more than doubled availability by the American revival” style structure as end of their first year of operation described in the resort’s official guide (Fiero). Later, the officially licensed book (Birnbaum’s 2017 2016, 218) Walt Disney World guidebook with stylistic parallels to buildings of compared the area to “any other fine 1930s Florida. shopping area in America” (Steve Birnbaum . . . 1990 1989, 121). As a result of The Walt Disney Company’s most recent redevelopment of the Marketplace neighborhood, the shopping area relies on a 1930s American Craftsmen style to chronologically orient the space and integrate it into the Disney
Springs narrative. As described by Marketplace Skees “The Craftsman-style The neighborhood that makes up Marketplace dates back to the 1930s Disney Spring’s Marketplace roughly and 1940s” and provides a more sits on the footprint of the Walt Disney handcrafted presentation (qtd. in World Resort’s first retail and dining Deitchman 2016). The choice fits complex originally known as “Lake nicely into the narrative of Disney Buena Vista Shopping Village.” Springs but may have also been a Opened in June 1975, Jackson Olsen, product of cost-effective convenience. Vice President of Merchandising for The original styling of Lake Buena The Walt Disney Company at the time,
Vista Shopping Village offered Disney Reveries in the Marketplace designers the opportunity to provide the district with a cosmetic overlay rather than an entire reconstruction. A 1980s guidebook described the retail center as “arranged in eight low-lying, shingle-sided buildings” (Steve Birnbaum . . . 1990 1989, 121). While the area is substantially larger in
2018, the original aesthetic proved In terms of visual engagement, pliable to fit into Disney Springs’ new visitors to the Marketplace are thematic design. confronted with two distinct The current manifestation of the manifestations for Florida’s past. As retail neighborhood maintains its mentioned, most of the area is original intent as the resort’s branded designed to evoke the American retail district. Patrons will find an craftsmen style popular in the 1930s. abundance of stores that feature Additionally, visitors will encounter Disney merchandise. Notably, the “Dockside Margaritas” described as a Marketplace is home to the largest waterfront bar where patrons can “get Disney Store in the world. Similar to a taste of the Sunshine State” its 1975 opening, the Marketplace (Birnbaum’s 2017 2016, 304). Fitting features tourist focused retail such as with the repurposed aesthetic of iconic a toy store, year-round Christmas Florida traditions, the structure is shop, and other souvenir items such modeled as a former Florida roadside as ornamental candles, cut-glass fruit stand of the 1960s (“Dockside figurines, and gourmet candies. Margaritas”).
Island venues and entertainment with an eye to a more family friendly space (Power and Chediak 2006). The reconstruction of Pleasure Island into The Landing does repurpose and thematically redefine the space and structures but for much the same purpose. The Landing
utilizes the same six-acre plot and The Landing pedestrian bridges. In line with the Unlike much of Disney Springs, 2006 redirection by The Walt Disney The Landing neighborhood is a Company, the current iteration stays repurposed space. The neighborhood away from an adults-only is built over Walt Disney World entertainment venue. However, The Resort’s defunct “Pleasure Island.” In Landing does provide late-night dining operation from 1989 to 2008, Pleasure and entertainment options. Also, the Island sat on a six-acre manmade area no longer charges a separate island along the lakefront connected admission and provides daytime to the shore by large pedestrian shopping and dining options. bridges. Whereas the Marketplace The theming of The Landing regularly catered to company branded presents a repurposed industrial retail, Pleasure Island provided adult district and transportation hub. nightlife, entertainment, and dining. Chronologically, the design of The During much its tenure, Pleasure Landing spans from the early 1900s to Island was an admission gated venue the 1970s. Within the Disney Springs catering to visitors 18 years of age narrative, the repurposed facades of and older. Evening entertainment such mass-transportation terminals as a comedy club, lounges, and dance demonstrate the vitality of the club regularly stayed open until community and the passage of time. midnight or later (Steve Birnbaum . . . The narrative is further reinforced with 1983 1982, 175-177). However, a compass motif laid out over a large starting in 2006 The Walt Disney brick plaza. The four points of the Company began shuttering Pleasure
compass are tipped with inlaid repurposed railroad depot reminiscent medallions depicting advancements in of Church Street Station. At the transportation from a horse drawn opposite end, the functional marina at carriage to a paddleboat steamer to a The Landing employs a style familiar train to an airplane. to the Seaside resort community in Florida’s panhandle. Visitors will also Reveries in The Landing encounter the facades of a power plant and airplane hangar constructed to emulate structures from the early 1900s and 1940s, respectively.
Visitors to The Landing neighborhood of Disney Springs are confronted with visual elements that are distinctly inspired by Florida’s past places and others that are more chronologically anchored. At one end West Side of The Landing is a high-end steak The West Side also pre-dates the house located in the façade of a Disney Springs overlay. Opened in
1997 as an expansion to Pleasure Once the celebration concluded, the Island and the Marketplace, the expo buildings remained and are now district focused on consumer occupied by modern entertainment entertainment in music, food, and providers and restaurants (Deitchman experiences. A “House of Blues” 2016). The thematic modifications in franchise added a 2,000-seat music the West Side are similar to the venue. A custom built 70,000 square- changes seen in the Marketplace. The foot, 1,650-seat theatre provided adjustments to the West Side featured resident space for the Canadian-based façade additions rather than a Cirque du Soleil performances complete reconstruction as done in (Birnbaum’s 1998 1997, 185-186). The Landing or Town Center. Finally, “DisneyQuest” offered an Designers added narrative features interactive, high-tech five-story indoor such as a plaque commemorating the attraction (Pecho 1998). At the time, 1950 exposition and added segments the West Side was more focused on of an elevated rail line to enhance purpose and function rather than visual immersion. theme. The area tangentially tied into Reveries in the West Side the downtown aesthetic of the three loosely affiliated districts (Marketplace, Pleasure Island, & West Side) when The Walt Disney Company renamed the entire complex “Downtown Disney” in 1997. In the context of the Disney Springs narrative, the West Side is the
most recent district in relation to the The West Side utilizes two other three neighborhoods. The West distinctive Florida trends which visitors Side, according to Disney storytelling, will visually encounter. Along a dates to 1950 when town celebrated lengthy walkway, Disney designers its centennial. The celebration crafted a row of storefront facades in welcomed industry and the vein of Florida’s iconic Art Deco demonstrations akin to a World’s Fair. style akin to Miami’s famous South
Beach. Additionally, a national coffee The themed narrative of the Town franchise has taken up residence in a Center neighborhood provides the new structure styled in Florida’s anchor for the Disney Springs Sarasota School made famous by storyline. Built from the ground up, it architects such as Paul Rudolph and is also the most cohesively themed Ralph Twitchell. district in Disney Springs. According to the town’s fictional narrative, the Town Center dates to the 1920s and was the community’s first definable neighborhood. To correspond with Florida’s past, the Town Center features “Mediterranean revival style that was popular in Florida” as described in Walt Disney World’s official guide book (Birnbaum’s 2017
2016, 218). The retail district features Town Center high-end shops and lifestyle retail The Town Center neighborhood is establishments along with some dining the newest addition to the Walt Disney options. World Resort’s retail and entertainment complex. It officially Reveries in the Town Center opened in May 2016. The district was built south of The Landing and between the West Side and Marketplace. Completion of the Town Center fashions the entire retail complex into roughly a diamond shape as opposed to the former curved line along Village Lake. The neighborhood also functions as the main entryway for visitors arriving by personal vehicle The Town Center’s utilization of or resort provided bus transportation Spanish Revival design is the most (Clark 2016). comprehensive of any design schema
of the four neighborhoods. Throughout theme parks that make up Walt the Town Center, fabricated visual Disney World Resort in Central Florida cues recreate the style of iconic drew in more than 55 million visitors. Florida developers such as Addison The Themed Entertainment Mizner. Design features mimic the Association’s annual report on theme style of Mizner’s 1919 Everglades Club park and museum industry attendance and his 1920s Via Mizner on Worth suggested that Disney Springs is Avenue in Palm Beach, Florida. Less “being very well received (by tourists) unique to Florida, the entry way into and adds to the general appeal” of the the Town Center features a large resort (2017, 10 and 24). As a free to multistory water town emblazoned access retail complex, The Walt with a “Disney Springs” marquee over Disney Company does not report the an artificially faded banner reading total number of visitors to Disney “Come and Visit the Springs, Florida.” Springs specifically. Therefore, it’s only possible to speculate the annual number of visitors to Disney Springs each year. In the event even a small fraction of the resort’s 55 million visitors spends an afternoon at Disney Springs, the annual number of tourists likely reaches into the millions. For comparison, an economic impact
study by the state of Florida found
that Blue Springs in Volusia County * * * only counted 589,941 visitors for the
2016-2017 fiscal year. In relation to It’s likely too soon to calculate how other springs managed by the state the reveries of Florida’s past at Disney park system, Blue Springs is one of Springs will impact perceptions of the the best performing in terms of state or the state itself. What is likely number of visitors (Florida DEP 2017). safe to assume is that Disney Springs Florida destinations like Blue Springs is now the most visited “spring” in the and Disney Springs are certainly state of Florida. In 2017, the four
divergent in terms of visitor utilization and experience. However, the influence of Disney Springs has the potential to overshadow conceptions of Florida’s real places, past and present, throughout the state. At Disney Springs, visitors are confronted with a depiction of Florida mediated through the intersection of consumerism, entertainment, and history reimagined in yet one more vision of how the state’s past is remembered for public consumption.
Print References
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https://www.disneyinstitute.co http://www.teaconnect.org/Res m/blog/designing-the-new- ources/Theme-Index/. Accessed disney-springs-how-place- 21 Sept. 2018. impacts/. Accessed 18 September 2018. Photographic References Kurtti, Jeff. Since the World Began: Walt Disney World The First 25 Florida Springs. Years. New York: Hyperion, Left column (top to bottom): Spring at 1996. Green Cove Springs. 187-. Black & The Lakeland Ledger. “Waterfront white photonegative. State Archives of Shopping Village to Open Florida, Florida Memory. Soon.” 16 Mar. 1975.
white photonegative. State Archives of Vista, Florida, Aug. 2018; photo by Florida, Florida Memory. author, Lake Buena Vista, Florida,
1930s Vernacular. Roadside Fruit Stands. Top: Boy Scout hut - Bartow, Florida. Top: Loomis, Ormond H., Collector. ca 1934. Black & white photonegative. Front of McLure's Fine Fruit Specialists State Archives of Florida, Florida store - Lake Wales, Florida. 1983?. Memory. Black & white photonegative. State
Photographs Division, Washington, (left to right): Field office in hangar D.C. building at Dale Mabry Field -
Art Deco.
Memory.