Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Adventureland Buildings

Four images of the architecture of Adventureland. First up is the Railroad station for the land- the Jungle River Cruise depot. Although covered with the detritus of many safaris, the structure has the design of a railroad depot with a central ticket area and open air waiting rooms.

Next up is the commercial section of Adventureland. The style of architecture is reminiscent of the found building material structures in many towns and cities in Africa. This style of construction is also used in Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World.

Another style of construction is the hut style with a straw roof and bamboo as seen in many imagined South Seas oasis. The style of hut is seen in many Tiki restaurants built during this time.

Speaking of restaurants, the Plaza restaurant had a split personality. On the Main Street side it appeared to be Victorian in design, and on the Adventureland side the restaurant is early Polynesian pop style like the first Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic's restaurants.

8 comments:

Thufer said...

I love the hanging laundry in the secod picture. Attention to detail is a hallmark.

Major Pepperidge said...

The second photo is really unusual, I don't think I've ever seen one quite like it. Great details!

stu29573 said...

That's a great shot of the Plaza! At first glance it looks like one building behind the other...

Daveland said...

Love these shots; and hopefully one day, a decent restaurant will return to Adventureland in the Tahitian Terrace area.

ZuluMagoo said...

The signs in the 3rd pic are great "Tikis Tropical Imports". Too bad we can't see what goodies are behind the curtain.

Anonymous said...

The Tahitian Terrace building might be my favorite in the whole park due to that 2-faced design.

You can see the entire massing of the building was considered in the design to enable one side to be in Tahiti and the other in Kansas City. A real act of architectural chutzpah, and it's almost invisible from any pedestrian sightline in either AV or MS.

Based on my memory, this last photo looks to be made from a "backstage" location not accessible to guests? Any insider thoughts on that?

JG

Katella Gate said...

JG: My guess is the last picture was taken from the observation tower of the the old Jungle Cruise cue shed (picture 1 at the very top).

Write me at KatellaGate@gmail.com, I want to ask you about the flooring in the Scull Rock Grotto.

Connie Moreno said...

Ooooh! Fantastic photos!