Sydney Summer: The Resort Outside the Parks

Part 1: Sydney Summer Introduction

Part 2: Theme Park Overviews

Now that we have looked at a quick overview of the total resort and parks, we are going to begin going indepth with specific areas of Disneyland Sydney over the rest of the summer and fall. This week covers most aspects of the resort that are outside the parks.

This is going to be a lot of information, all the kind of stuff that I think about when designing but don't really show up in the final plans. Hope it's interesting. At least if its not, next time it's about the theme parks and will include attraction plans and elevations.

The Transit Hub

For a viable resort, transportation to and from the resort are key elements. It's easy to ignore since its not that exciting, but it could be disastrous to the resorts operations. So I have put a lot of thought into how it works here. So were going to start with how you get to the resort and where you go when your there. The below diagram shows all public vehicular traffic, with each type labeled by color. You may need to zoom in.

Exits from both directions of A4 and southbound A40 converge and lead toward the transit hub building. The ramps take the cars up 30' from road level to a new artificial ground level. This whole public space and Transit Hub is a plateau above the off property roads and on property backstage area so that backstage access roads can travel below with ease. The majority of cars here will go straight and into the deck, through one of the 5 gates, and then find a spot in the 7 floor garage. Cars circulate by way of two sets of ramps, one for traffic going up, one for traffic going down. The deck would fill starting from the entrance floor, floor 4, and distribute cars equally above and below as guided by cast members and a digital tracking system that marks open spaces. Each floor has four aisles of 45 degree angled parking. Additionally, on floors 4-6, the aisle on the east side of the ramps would be for handicap parking. The floors are color coded and numbered for ease of guest use. Based on rough math, this deck has 2290 spaces, equaling an estimated capacity of 9160 guests based on an average of 4 guests per car. This is likely not enough capacity for the resort, so there would have to be a secondary off site parking location that guests would be bused to and from.

Below is a plan of the entrance floor and a standard upper floor. The orange dashed lines show the entrance path through the ticketing gates, leading to either the up ramp, down ramp, or one of the 5 rows on the first floor. On the upper floor, cars come up the ramp, turn left and go down one of the 4 rows. They can also go around to the disabled parking row on the east side. If there are no spots on the floor, they continue up by the up ramp to the next floor. To exit the cars go down the down ramp, shown by the green dashed line and continue circling around back to the entrance floor and out the north east corner.

Once parked, guests walk to the east in the deck along the walkways on the north and south sides. On the east side are elevator lobbies and directions that guests should travel to floor 6. Guests must go up to a sky bridge that crosses over the main exit roadway and the bus hub. Here the architecture is most displayed. Spanning the full length of the Transit Hub and garage and as wide as the sky bridge is a impressive space frame canopy structure that defines a large double height space. It wraps over the building, shading a portion of the top parking floor and creating an icon entrance wall on the west side that cars enter through that is covered with a perforated metal screen. In the sky bridge, a flowing and kinetic hanging art piece directs guests forward where the double height space opens up to be the top of a 6 story atrium. A full height glass wall ahead looks out to the Disney District and the Disneyland Park. Guests take elevators down to the ground floor, and exit the Hub.

At the end of their day, guests exit the deck by either going down or up back to floor 4 and then exit out the north east corner of the garage. Cars turn right onto the main exit roadway of the resort, the one that passes right through the middle of the Hub, which leads to on ramps to A4 going both directions.

Cars that are headed to the Disneyland Hotel turn left before entering the transit hub, drive around the building, and then arrive at the porte-cochere. After unloading, they circle back to the right and enter a dedicated smaller parking deck. This has 6 floors, with entry still of floor 4, however hotel guests do not occupy the lowest floor. This deck has 300 spaces for the hotel, which is estimated at 1200 guests. The exit from this garage leads both back to the porte cochere and then directly to the main exit road. Valet parking is available and very necessary at the hotel because of the small size of the deck. There are 680 rooms in the hotel, so less than half will be able to park on site. The rest will drop off their car at the porte cochere where it will be driven to an off site parking facility. The car enters the deck, exits on floor 2, which is the level of the adjacent backstage, and then exits the property by way of the backstage road to the north of the hotel.

Cars such as taxis that enter the resort just to drop off enter the same as all traffic, turn left, and then immediately pull into a drop off lot adjacent to the parking deck. I unfortunately could not get it any closer, but it is much lower priority that some of the other transportation methods, so I decided this location was suitable. Guests walk through the parking deck to reach the resort. Cars travel around the deck and exit the normal way.

Buses are also extremely important to the operations of the Transit Hub. They enter the site from all 3 directions like cars, turn left to travel around the parking deck like hotel guests, and then turn right into the bus hub. There are 5 stops on either side that serve multiple different public and private lines. The stops on the east side serve the Disney owned buses which include the off site parking buses and dedicated airport line buses. The west side includes Sydney public transportation buses and other private lines. Guests on the east side enter into the atrium space directly from the bus stops, take elevators down, and enter the District. Guests on the west side must use the sky bridge, so take elevators up to floor 6 and then cross over and down. The Disneyland Hotel also has a bus stop to be served by airport line buses.To the west of the parking garage are two surface lots specifically for bus parking, like group tour buses.

Last, the resort takes advantage of public transportation options. The most unique is the Sydney ferry system. A new stop is build adjacent to the Disney District that serves both existing lines and a new direct Downtown to Disneyland Sydney line. In the southwest corner of the diagram is the other public option, the Sydney light rail. That existing station is expanded and connected to the resort by a private half mile walking path and bridge, or about a 12 minute walk.

Backstage Operations

The main backstage complex of the resort is to the north of the Transit Hub, separated from the two parks. The main gate from Robert Street leads to a small complex that has the main receiving building, the cast center building, and a few small department offices. Remember this whole backstage area is 30' below the adjacent public areas. Trucks make their deliveries to the receiving building or to the hotel ahead before exiting at the east end of the backstage road. High level managers and executives park in the bottom floor of the hotel parking deck. Cast park off site and are bused to a station built on the north side of the cast center. All costuming storage and cleaning is offsite at the same location as the parking. There are more storage and operations buildings there too. Other backstage buildings are distributed around the edges of the resort.

This north complex is connected to the rest of the resort by way of hidden roads under the Transit Hub. A tunnel leads from just adjacent to the hotel parking deck south under the bus hub and then splits off to the two parks. Off of this tunnel are a series of storage rooms under the bus hub. The tunnel begins at real ground level because of the previously mentioned 30' rise but gradually slopes down 18' under the transit hub. It does this because the backstage road has to travel under the pathway to Hollywood Adventure Park. The backstage road then slopes back up to ground level past the path, which is shown on the diagram. The backstage road to Hollywood Adventure likewise slopes back up underneath the A4 roadway. These roads loop around both resorts and access the remaining backstage buildings. To the south of Disneyland Park is an entertainment building, merchandising warehouse, security and fire building, cast dining center, and the main central shops building. On the north side is a helipad, two warehouses, and a large receiving dock so that goods do not have to come only by truck.

Because of the extreme separation of the main cast center and the two parks, I have included a cast transit system in the plan for the rest. I image a fleet of small buses would transport cast members from the cast center in the north backstage complex direct to the parks. There are three stops built into each park, spread out around the perimeters. There would also be some cast support spaces at each of the stops.

There are more backstage operation details that are more related to the specifics of the parks, so I will share those when discussing the appropriate land. 

The Disneyland Hotel

The shape of the site immediately suggested the shape and placement of a feature hotel on the north side of the bay, which I decided to make the Disneyland Hotel. Architecturally, it is modern like the original Disneyland Hotel, with dominant use of glass, concrete, and colored metal panel for accents. There are three towers, the Fantasy Tower, the Adventure Tower, and the Discovery Tower from west to east. Each are 10 floors from park ground level, but there are no rooms on floor 1 and floors 2-4 are singled loaded with rooms only on the south side.

The entry lobby and public spaces are located on floor 3 and 4 while service areas for the hotel are located below with access to the backstage complex by way of a tunnel under the porte cochere area. The lobby features a three floor atrium with a glass dome and a grand modern staircase. The public areas around the lobby include a counter service location, retail, and a fine dining restaurant in the semicircular protrusion, looking out to the District and park. There is also a rec center including both an indoor and outdoor pool on the 5th floor. There is a large event center built into the bottom floors of the east end of the Discovery Tower with additional backstage service areas.

The west two towers include standard rooms and luxury suites while the Discovery Tower is split between family suites and standard rooms. By my counts, the Fantasy Tower holds 202 standard rooms and 9 suites, the Adventure Tower holds 183 standard rooms, and the Discovery Tower holds 136 standard rooms and 150 family suites. That totals 680 rooms in the hotel, which I estimate to be a max capacity of about 3800 guests with every room full and a rough average of 2800 guests.

I left the rest of the north shore of the bay unoccupied with the assumption that private good neighbor hotels could be built there in the future. There would be a Disney operated ferry line that connected these hotels to the Disney District.

The elevation drawing shows the main architectural features of the building: a concrete clad base topped by glass curtain wall with a series of metal panel arch extrusions adding depth and variety to the facade. The extruded arches feature color on the inside and outside faces as well as color on the spandrels between floors. The far left and right rooms inside these arches have a french balcony. The decision for a mostly glass facade was to attempt to minimize the visibility of the building from the parks. Of course it will always be visible, but a reflective facade helps the large building fade into the sky when viewed from the rest of the resort.

The Disney District

The next thing to cover before the parks is the Disney District. This area is meant to act as a second Main Street to the small resort, increasing the retail and dining options outside the parks while also forming a slow transition from the Transit Hub to the parks. Just outside of the Transit Hub atrium is a large icon fountain with a globe similar to TDS. To the left is the pathway to the hotel, to the right is the path to Hollywood Adventure, and straight is the main corridor of the District. Because Australia drives on the left instead of the right, the normal arrangement of program is flipped. Food and specialty retail is on the left to be visited when you are entering, and the main retail is on the right while exiting.

The north side is a complex of four interconnected buildings, each with two levels, that hold a variety of food options of all scales and prices, specialty retail locations, and other late night entertainment choices. The buildings are all connected on the second level by open air bridges. There would be a mix of private and Disney operated tenants in this area. The Disney owned locations include a version of the Boathouse adjacent to the ferry dock, a themed entertainment dining experience, a themed club, and a live music club. The eastmost building also houses the central kitchens for the entire resort. These four buildings have underground access to the rest of backstage via a tunnel to the road under the Transit Hub. The diagram below is a rough outline of a possible program distribution, showing the different retail and dining options of the District.

The south building is one large World of Disney store, hidden behind multiple facades and branded as a series of unique stores. Inside is a massive two story retail environment for guests to finish all shopping needs as they exit the park.

The architecture of the entire District is international modern, blending vernacular modern language with international details to create a complex that feels like it was slowly assembled by a diverse group of people. It shouldn't be clean and consistent modern, but it shouldn't be so complex and themed that it requires a backstory. Just a design mood that this Disney District has a history and has character worth being explored.

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There, that covers most everything I wanted to mention about the areas outside the parks. That means next time, in two weeks, we are going to start the more interesting part: a land by land walk through of the two theme parks, complete with 5 attraction plans, multiple elevations, and hopefully (if I have time to make them) some other graphics and logos.

So since were going to be hitting some big posts in the coming weeks and months, I really want to reach the biggest audience possible. I would really appreciate it if you comment, retweet, share, favorite, anything you can to help spread the posts coming up. Really appreciate you all reading and hope you enjoy the posts!

Sydney Summer: Theme Park Overviews

Last week I introduced the concept and location of the resort. This week I'm giving you some specifics of the most exciting part: the theme parks. This will be a cursory overview because I will go much more indepth with land-specific posts later on that explain the design aesthetics, storylines, and technical details of each area. But I figured you wanted to know a little bit about this part now.

Introducing the Theme Parks

Based on the site and the goals I had for the resort, I decided that two 1-day parks was the best and most realistic plan for Disneyland Sydney. The resort was originally designed without the southern plot below the roadway, so the one park was easy to define spatially. When I decided to expand, I did consider keeping it at one park and expanding up to a park comparable to the rest of the Disneyland parks, but decided against it for logistics. It would be a challenge to move guests under the roadway freely while still maintaining any form of park layout structure and logic. So two parks.

I assumed early on that I would follow tradition and make the first gate a Disneyland style park, placed in the prime and larger park plot. For the second park, I considered a few existing concepts, including EPCOT and DisneySea, but ultimately decided on a Hollywood park. For good or bad, IP based themed areas and attractions are what people want right now, so it would be unrealistic to leave Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar out of the resort. I couldn't bring myself to put those properties in the first gate because I wanted to preserve the thematic integrity of an IP-less Disneyland. That meant I needed a Hollywood second gate. With both parks however, I decided to break away from the traditional rules of their park type. The Disneyland Park features lands and a design aesthetic closer to DisneySea than Disneyland. The Hollywood Adventure park very specifically lacks any buildings that resemble soundstages and instead focus on fully realized and detailed environments. These are subtly new takes on the existing design.

I will discuss it in more detail soon, but the two parks are connected by Disney District, an entertainment and retail zone, which you can see on the site plan I posted last week.

Disneyland Park

As the main park of the resort, the Disneyland Park has the best location, sitting at the end of Disney District retail corridor and directly visible from the exit of the transit hub. The entrance plaza at the end of the District includes bag check pavilions, the covered turnstiles, guest service buildings on either side, and ticketing windows built into the District buildings. Through the gates is the classic floral Mickey with tunnels on either side, even though there is no train tracks.

Inside, the park follows the traditional spatial sequence of a Disneyland Park: Town square with civic buildings that house guests services that leads to a narrow Main Street retail corridor. There is only one block of Main Street because of the site limitations, but because of the District retail corridor, no program is lost. Main Street contains retail on both sides, a bakery and ice cream shop on the north side, and a crowd control arcade in the back of the south side.

The fairly large hub is based on the traditional model and has the Plaza Inn, a counter service location, on the north side, and the Crystal Palace, a buffet location, on the south side. Water features are a major element of the hub, including stepping waterfalls on the east side, flowing into the large moat/lagoon. Rapunzel's Castle is ahead, behind a stage.

Adventureland is to the right, with a distinctively Tiki building straight ahead, which holds a Tiki Room inspired table service restaurant. The land thematically is based on the depth and mystery of the jungle, supported by the series of colonized buildings that progress from Tiki, to African, to Caribbean. The dense jungle begins just to the left with the Treehouse looming above. A series of tropical facades to the left contains a shooting gallery, retail, and a counter service location, spread between two floors. The jungle side features explorer paths that lead into a network of caves, also connecting to the multilevel treehouse. Farther along is a coaster through the jungle weaving through caves and waterfalls. The last area of the land is a Caribbean fortress town, invaded by Pirates. Inside is a new version of Pirates of the Caribbean, which features an outdoor flume drop runout through the jungle.

Across the Hub is Discoveryland, which portrays a future directly based on the writings of the past, adapting the stories with modern technology as if they were written today. Set at a Worlds Fair that unites all of these scientists and inventors, the land is highlighted by a volcano, a secondary icon to the park. Straight ahead is the Rocket Jets spinner, siting on a rock pedestal. To the left is the Time Institute, which contains a 360 degree dome movie experience based on the Timekeeper and a counter service location. Inside the volcano is a version of Journey to the Center of the Earth, like the TDS attraction. There is also a water LPS ride, like Aquatopia at TDS, that travels through the depths of the volcano and is part dark ride, part random travel. The Nautilus marks the entrance to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which uses the Storm Rider attraction system also from TDS. Last is a revived version of Alien Encounter, though toned town and tied into space travel, not teleportation.

Straight ahead from the Hub is Fantasyland, featuring the icon, Rapunzel's Castle. On the other side of the castle is a fantasy village with three sub areas. the Village includes a Carousel, a Tangled dark ride on the left side of the castle, a Dumbo spinner, and a large counter service location. To the north is Wonderland, based on the animated film. It is made up of the Mad Tea Party spinner, a large LPS dark ride through Alice's adventures, and a Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall buffet location. The other side of Fantasyland transitions into the Pirates area of Adventureland and features a new version of Peter Pan's Flight.

The last land of the park is a completely new land, introduced to act as a better buffer to the high rises of the city across the water. New York Harbor is a 1920s take on a big city and is centered on the story of a prosperous shipping magnate that has recently disappeared. Immediately visible is a full sized steamship in dock, which acts as a interesting icon to those passing by outside the park. Inside the ship is a fine dining restaurant, bar, and a track based shooter ride through the stores of the cargo hold. Just next to the ship is the home of the magnate, which is the parks Haunted Mansion and uses the same building layout and track plan as a tribute to the original. Also in the land is a Broadway theater, a speakeasy counter service location, an outdoor market, and retail. The last two attractions are E ticket major draws and are based in a dark and gritty back corner of the land. The first is a elevated train ride that travels both indoors and outdoors. On it, a normal trip through the city is interrupted by a live action hijacking, forcing the car to get stuck in the middle of an action packed shootout.. The second is a large motion base dark ride that follows a noir detective through the crime ridden streets of New York.

Disneyland Park's entertainment includes a mini afternoon parade, a large scale multimedia fireworks show, and many small acts spread around the park.

Hollywood Adventure

The second park is accessed through a tunnel under the road that bisects the resort. It leads to an entrance plaza much like the first gate, except with Golden Age Hollywood on the other side of the gates. This park has a much smaller footprint and has irregular dimensions, so it is a bit of an unusual plan. The parks has few rides with small footprints, but what it has are high impact, immersive, and repeatable, and based on extremely popular properties.

Through the turnstiles and past the Crossroads of the World Tower, the facades narrow to street width and then open again into the Hollywood Gardens, the hub of the park. The Chinese Theater sits ahead across a street and small body of water. The facades on the north side of the Garden replace "Main Street" and contain the retail and food for the entrance way. Because of the size of the park, all these buildings have two occupiable floors, even the retail. The east side includes a large counter service location on the ground floor and a table service location of the top floor. The west side features an interactive soundstage attraction, where guests can learn about and take part in classic films. Inside the Chinese Theater is an updated version of Cinemagic. There are two lands to the west, one to the east.

Animation is to the east, and is mostly Pixar. Through  a Disney Animation Studios gateway, the street divides between a city area and a park area. The trees of the park hide that this area is an oversized Toy Story world, which includes a spinner, a snack box, and a original Toy Story shooter ride that is physical set based. Across the street is the Disney animation building, which includes a classic dark ride based on the concept of Mickey's Philharmagic and featuring cameo scenes from many popular films. Turtle Talk, the Animation Academy, and a large meet and greet facility round out the building. At the end of the street is Carl's house, sitting in front of the Wilderness Scout Meeting Hall, which is a counter service location. It is also the entrance to a 3D Circumotion attraction where guests take flight with Carl and Russel on a trip to Paradise Falls. The last attraction of the land is a major Incredibles LPS ride following the adventures of the super family.

Marvel is the first area to the west and has two areas: the Star Expo and Avengers City. A tree lined path leads to the sleek chrome building which houses an indoor dark ride/coaster and a animatronic show Iron Man Experience. The New York style street is directly opposite, leading to the Avengers tower sitting at the end. The right side of the street holds a large counter service location, the left side holds retail, and the main attraction is in the building at the end. Avengers Assemble is a 4D dark ride with roller coaster and drop tower elements built through the adventure. The Avengers labs in the building also have interactive training areas based on the Avengers. Back in the streets, there is a family friendly mini Pandoras Box dark ride through the world of super hero New York, featuring Spiderman and the other non Avenger Marvel characters of New York.

Star Wars is the final land of the park, featuring the largest ride of the resort. The streets of the city fade into the street of Coruscant, leading directly to the Millennium Falcon, which is fully explorable. The city includes a cantina counter service location, a table service location looking over the city, a large retail market, and four attractions. On the south side is a 4D special effects theater experience featuring live performers and effects. The north side has a Jedi Training Academy theater and an extreme spinner attraction which rises into a projection dome and then tilts 60 degrees while still spinning. The last and largest ride is a Kuka based X-wing flight through the galaxy, culminating in a trip through the trench of the Death Star.

The entertainment for the park includes a small day time parade, similar to the Stars and Motor Cars concept and scale, and a large nighttime show loosely based on Fantasmic that utilizes the stage and lagoon in front of the Chinese Theater as well as projections and fireworks.

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I hope those quick summaries of the parks tide you over until we get back to them in more detail later this summer. I will ideally be developing attraction plans for about five of the attractions as well as elevations and details for each and every land. But first, we are going to hit what is outside of the parks, starting with the transit hub, backstage, Disneyland Hotel, and Disney District next week, June 2nd.

Imagineerland's Sydney Summer

Its summer, school is out, its the perfect time to take a trip, and time to start something new. So today we begin a new series of posts here on Imagineerland going indepth on a large scale project: a new resort in Sydney.

Now I have titled this Imagineerland's Sydney Summer, but it is likely were going to extend into the fall and winter depending on how productive I manage to be. I have a series of posts lined up that include site plans, attraction plans, elevations, and maybe even graphics that detail the many elements of the resort. Some of you from the previous website saw a first version of this resort, but there have been significant changes and additions since then. So today we begin with an introduction and overview of the resort.

Introducing the Project and Site

One of my goals has always been to masterplan and detail a full sized international resort. As an exercise to build up to that goal, I set out to design a regional resort on a smaller scale a few years ago. The success of that preliminary plan has led me to continue developing this resort to what you see today. 

I began with a world wide search for a site. My criteria included finding an international tourist city in a regional market not already served by Disney. Additionally, I looked for an inner city site near an active downtown zone with access to public transportation and plenty of build-able land surrounding it. Some of the leading candidates included London, Seoul, and Washington DC, but I finally decided on Sydney Australia because I found the perfect site: Glebe Island and the surrounding White Bay area. 

Glebe Island, just to the west of the city, is a vacant former port facility surrounded by docks and marinas. Plenty of land near the city, perfect for development. Imagine my surprise to later find stories that Disney had also considered this site. That confirmed that this was the perfect place to design a new resort. 

I set out to design a resort that includes a primary single day park, a small retail and entertainment district, a large Disney operated hotel, and a second future expansion park. It would also include the supporting infrastructure of a transit hub and parking deck, backstage complex, and access to existing public transportation.

I laid out the different program areas of the resort based on the geometry of the site, available surrounding land, and the existing transportation options. The narrow strip of the land on the north of the bay suggests a line of hotels, the intersection of major roads marks a natural location for the main entrance and transit hub of the resort, and the existing elevated road and bridge creates a logical division that allows for two separate parks. I also reclaimed about 9.5 acres (415,000 sq ft) of land from the bay on the south side of the resort and about 7 acres total (312,000 sq ft) of small parcels of land on the north and east side of Glebe Island. Included in the below diagram are the areas of reclaimed land, footprints of the two parks along with their "Main Streets" and "Hubs", and the footprints of the transit hub and hotel. 

I will be going indepth on each area of the resort in the coming months, sharing detailed text descriptions and commentary, so for now, I will just share the total resort site plan.

I'm excited to share more soon! Next week I will provide closer site plans, more details, and text descriptions of the two parks.

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This weeks design question:

Regarding the future of new international Disney resorts, where do you think is next? And should they be full sized multi park resorts or small regional resorts like what I have proposed?

I believe the world has room for 3-4 more full sized Disney resorts: at least one in South America and at least two more in Asia. I am no expert though, that is just the personal opinion of a theme park fan based on the available markets and past successes of existing resorts. After that, I think they will need to turn to these small localized parks that fill into the world markets that are not large enough for a true resort. I could see a dozen or more of these around the world spreading the Disney Parks brand to the areas not yet reached. I would hit London, Sydney, Singapore, Dubai, somewhere in New England, and somewhere in South America first.