Celebration!

[ablarc]

CELEBRATION


It’s time for Celebration. But before we get to it, let’s play a little game of Guess the City.

Aah…Florida:

http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/001.jpg

Wait a minute! That isn’t Florida; that’s obviously Alexandria, Virginia.


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Seattle or Portland.


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Savannah, Georgia, for sure.


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Don’t know where in Europe this one is: maybe Belgium, maybe the Po Valley? If it were France, the trees would be cropped and closer together.


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Just to the northwest of the Arc de Triomphe lies the leafy urban suburb of Neuilly.


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Aha! Obviously this is one of those buildings on the outskirts of Modena where rich playboys pretend to be car manufacturers. Just as obviously, the architect was Aldo Rossi.


http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/006f.jpg

Is this a secluded cove in an Adriatic city? Slovenia or Croatia.


http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/006k.jpg

This one is a no-brainer. That is obviously Charleston.


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Just as obviously, this is Maine. A new development; there are still stickers on the windows. New England retro.


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This must be the nautically-themed hotel down on the harbor at Annapolis.


No? Drat! Wrong again: they’re all in the same place:

http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/007v.jpg

CELEBRATION, FLORIDA!! …by Disney!!!


http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/007w.jpg http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/007x.jpg

The following description is from this website:

http://celebration.nm1.net/#WHAT

WHAT IS CELEBRATION??......


It is the first planned community developed by The Walt Disney Company. While EPCOT Center was originally planned as an "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow", we all know that financial as well as other considerations dictated that the dream of Walt Disney be changed from a city to a new gated attraction.

Celebration will be a true planned community including a downtown, health center, school, post office, town hall, golf course, single family homes, townhouses and apartments. Disney used the services of top-name architects in developing the plans for Celebration. The master plan architects were Cooper, Robertson & Partners and Robert A.M. Stern Architects.

FACTS ABOUT CELEBRATION
· Opening of Phase One:
-July 4th, 1996
· Size:
-4,900 acres, surrounded by a protected greenbelt of 4,700 acres
· Population:
-20,000 people in 8,000 housing units
· Government:
-Unincorporated town within Osceola County
-Two Community Development Districts will provide funding for the infrastructure of Celebration
-Two community associations will manage the neighborhoods
-The Walt Disney Company will own the downtown, golf course and office park
-Home buyers will own their homes and land
· Zip Code:
-34747
· Amenities:
-18 hole public golf course
-Public school
-Offices
-Health facility
-Theatres
-Walking paths
-Nature trails
-Village parks
-Downtown lake
· Total Investment:
-$2.5 Billion

http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/007y.jpg

Ah, now I can tell it’s Florida; look at those Miami Beach colors.


http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/007z.jpg

Even better, Caribbean!


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This place is seriously pretty.


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The bachelors and swingers live in the 1BR units above the shops, smack in the middle of downtown. Note that Disney is not much into restricting the size of signage if it suits a picturesque purpose. That big beige thing dangling off the corner is a neon sign visible from down two streets. That must be Stern again; he’s the one who rezoned Times Square and told them they had to have neon. I remember when St. Augustine looked like this, before they turned it into a tourist attraction.


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The streetscape here makes me think of Cannes.


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A really nifty building by Stern, near the middle of things. Nice to see there is a middle.


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Arcaded sidewalks with shops, just like Palm Beach, make a nice perspective axis.


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The same receding lines in a traffic median, like a mini-Commonwealth Avenue. Are you starting to get the impression that this is really a pretty nice place?


Look, they have even jumped on the city car idea, http://pub66.ezboard.com/fskyscraperguyfrm7.showMessage?topicID=50.topic, and have specially-sized and designated spaces for microcars. This one is about the size and configuration of the Smart without doors:

http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/09.jpg


Palm Beach-style, with its alleys and mid-block courts:

http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/11.jpg

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Glad to see that Disney is not down on taverns. That is a pretty nice café; and what lakefront is complete without a [Leon] Krieresque gazebo, complete with Key West shutters? That tropical theme just doesn’t let up:

http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/15.jpg

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The canal tells you you’re in Florida (or maybe the Low Countries); Celebration must have been a swamp once:

http://ablarchitecture.com/images/tom/celebration/17.jpg


Now we’re definitely in Florida. Like that Spanish architecture:

http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/25.jpg

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And now, here is a square in London-town. Is this Belgravia? Nice of the fire marshal to allow windows in the endwalls; nothing worse to look at than a blank, exposed party wall:

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Now we’re getting into more familiar, suburban territory. Things are starting to look less like someplace else and more like anyplace. Here is Anyplace, Cape Cod style:

http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/41.jpg

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And here is Anyplace, Victorian-style. Late nineteenth century streetscape with modern appliances, air conditioning and attached garages in the rear:

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From the Celebration website referenced above:

“HOUSING

Unlike most planned communities, where different uses and housing types a developed in separate "zones", Celebration will blend townhouses, apartments and Estate Homes in the same neighborhoods. Plans call for a pre-40's type of town...classical architecture, garages behind the houses and everything within walking distance.

Restrictive covenants will dictate what homeowners can and cannot do in Celebration. The covenants will not be released until homes go on sale on November 18, 1995. Included in the covenants are six approved design styles for homes in Celebration….

Classical
Victorian
Colonial Revival
Coastal
Mediterranean
French”


It seems from the photos that they decided in fact that it was too risky to mix residential types. Too bad; I guess people prefer their immediate surroundings to be monotonous. Or maybe it’s only the experts who think this. Has anyone tried recently to test this theory with actual built form?

Here’s the link to Disney’s house types, as listed on the official website:

http://www.celebrationfl.com/residential/homes.html

Note the prices.

Most of the good photos on this post came from Cyburbia:
http://www.cyburbia.org/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=998&stype=1&si=celebration

Here is a quick tour of Downtown.

http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/55.jpg


The lugubrious (no, funereal) City Hall, by Philip Johnson. Has the Mouse no eyes? This building conveys the exact opposite of celebration. Oh well, guess it’s by a great architect. Well, famous anyway:

http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/56.jpg


Post Office by Michael Graves, bank by Robert Venturi. Mediocrity incarnate in both cases; obviously only the name on the plans was important. I am posting drawings because photos make them look worse:

http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/57.jpg http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/58.jpg


The waterfront hotel by Graham Gund is pretty nice:

http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/58d.jpg http://ablarchitecture.com/images/tom/celebration/59.jpg http://ablarchitecture.com/images/tom/celebration/60.jpg


The movie theater is right out of The Majestic:

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Downtown is a pretty nice place to hang out:

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Holy Moley: rocking chairs in the town square!! What will they think of next? Those imagineers! Next they’ll be soliciting for street artists.

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A four-passenger city car for a mild climate:

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Signs the touristos are starting to make nuisances of themselves:

http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/66.jpg http://ablarchitecture.com/images/tom/celebration/67.jpg

What: you want privacy living in a theme park? Or is it a theme park? Maybe not.


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Even more info here:

http://www.city-data.com/city/Celebration-Florida.html

[Kris]

Well, I suppose it's in keeping with the theme-park theme.

[ablarc]

I'm not so sure it is in keeping with the theme park theme. I don't really see anything in any of the pictures that suggests theme park to me. It looks like a small traditional city, and a pretty good one at that. This is standard new urbanism, and not much wrong with it that I can find.

If I hadn't told you it was Disney, would you have known?

How?

And finally, why is almost anything associated with Disney's name automatically ridiculed? Is Times Square ridiculous because it was cleaned up? This is the same crew that changed Times Square: Robert Stern and Jack Robertson.

I think someone is shooting from the hip.

Look again, Christian, and leave your prejudices at the door.

[NoyokA]

Just like my hometown of St. Pete, you can see these photos are completely empty. Glamorized strip-mall architecture is life-less, and btw Florida is bad enough without it.

[fioco]

The photo tour is VERY impressive! And my hopes are that it is viable, lively and active. Next time I visit my younger brother in Orlando, I should ask if we could take a tour of this planned community.

However, I'm not a disciple yet. When I lived in Gaithersburg, Maryland, I had to pass the Kentlands every day on my way to work. Kentlands is another new urbanist nirvana that has gotten a lot of national press. Kentlands has front porches, brick sidewalks, with an elementary school, shopping, and banks within walking distance.

But in reality, Kentlands is an anti-urban enclave without the gates. Its planned layout --shopping plazas surrounded by apartments, giving way to townhouses, and finally transitioning to single family homes -- ensured that the riff raff of Gaithersburg (yet alone the District) would never come too close for comfort. The greatest danger of unprotected proximity to the lower classes would be at the Giant (tm) foodmart.

Needless to say, I shopped in Kentlands because it was close by. But I escaped when I could to Baltimore when I longed for an urban environment. If I'm in Orlando this winter, I'll try to check it out. I hope you're right. But what I've witnessed first hand, in Maryland and in Oregon, gives me shudders.

[ablarc]

I don't get it.

First we tore down our towns in America to provide parking for the remnants. Then the remnants died because they had become unviable and couldn't compete with the strips and the malls and the suburbs.

Now there is this terrific nostalgia in our popular culture for small-town life in America. Just go to the movies if you don't know what I mean.

Then when someone builds a pretty good replica of a small town, it gets bad-mouthed by the supposed mavens of urbanity. The people who live there don't bad-mouth it. If you want teeming humanity such as Times Square, rest assured it never, ever existed in any small town anywhere; there just aren't enough people in a small town.

But this is exactly why folks choose small-town living. The uncrowded sidewalks that some consider evidence of certain failure is exactly what they seek.

Then we enlightened city hipsters superciliously denigrate the whole package on the basis of what? ...that it doesn't meet some self-referential notion we have of what is hip. This sounds an awful lot like good old-fashioned snobbery to me.

[fioco]

I agree. You don't get it. I grew up in West Virginia. Our small town was an urban environment.

I want something real, not plastic, something that requires community, not ersatz suburban nesting.

[ablarc]

Well, what exactly is the difference between community and ersatz suburban nesting?

Could it be, fioco, that you are making my point for me? You are clearly contemptuous of ersatz suburban nesters. You also feel it imperative to establish your working class credentials. Is this class warfare?

Why not let the nesters nest?

"Nothing human is foreign to me" --Terence

[Ebryan]

I'm a big fan of Celebration. I visited a friend there this past month, it was the first time I've been there in 4 years. I was quite surprised and impressed with the changes (trees have grown in, homes are aging and it was a great vibe). This sort of development is sure as hell better than all the other crap in the area.

[Fabrizio]

Ablarc: this gallery and your intellegent comments are wonderful. From the photos it looks like the place works in a big way. It would be great if it could be a mix of incomes and people...hope it´s not just a rich ghetto.... but I guess we can´t ask for toooo much. It´s very attractive..."cutsy" is there ....but seems held to a minimum. It looks serious. American don´t always seem to understand the beauty in decay....but some chipped and peeling frayed edges wouldn´t hurt here either...I´m sure it will get there.

BTW kids, there´s nothing new about planned cities and this is very much along the lines of England´s Garden City movement from a hundred years ago:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_city_movement

[Jim Koeleman]

edit.

[Ebryan]

Ablarc: this gallery and your intellegent comments are wonderful. From the photos it looks like the place works in a big way. It would be great if it could be a mix of incomes and people...hope it´s not just a rich ghetto.... but I guess we can´t ask for toooo much. It´s very attractive..."cutsy" is there ....but seems held to a minimum. It looks serious. American don´t always seem to understand the beauty in decay....but some chipped and peeling frayed edges wouldn´t hurt here either...I´m sure it will get there.

BTW kids, there´s nothing new about planned cities and this is very much along the lines of England´s Garden City movement from a hundred years ago:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_city_movement

It is indeed more expensive to live in Celebration than what exists around it in Kissimmee, though Orlando prices seem to be rising in general. In terms of decay, well thats not going to happen in Celebration, but keep in mind that its only about 12 years old in the oldest part of town, and the newest is still under construction. Despite this, like I said before, I have felt in my last visit a sense of maturity growing in the community there.

[Jasonik]

The lugubrious (no, funereal) City Hall, by Philip Johnson. Has the Mouse no eyes? This building conveys the exact opposite of celebration. Oh well, guess it’s by a great architect. Well, famous anyway:

http://66.230.220.70/images/post/celebration/56.jpg


Looks like a really nice Florida municipal building.

[Citytect]

American don´t always seem to understand the beauty in decay....

This is such a true statement.

However, Celebration looks depressing to me. It reminds me of what once was - communities that looked something like this but came about more organically. It's a shame we destroyed so much of the past, but I don't think trying to replicate it is the best way to go. It works for many people though. I'll just stay clear of their celebration.

[Fabrizio]

But new development today usually means enclosed malls and out door malls and strip malls and miles of parking lots, condos with colonial do-dads and weirdly proportioned ticky-tack McMansions and fast food joints with red plastic roofs and more parking lots and no side-walks and...and.... that is what "organic" growth is today. I DO agree with you....there is a Twilight Zone /Truman Show aspect about it ...but gee, this looks awfully well designed.

Altough, if I lived there I´d probably secretly litter.

[Ebryan]

This is such a true statement.

However, Celebration looks depressing to me. It reminds me of what once was - communities that looked something like this but came about more organically. It's a shame we destroyed so much of the past, but I don't think trying to replicate it is the best way to go. It works for many people though. I'll just stay clear of their celebration.

Then what is the best way to go?

[lofter1]

Here is some news on "Santana Row" (http://www.santanarow.com/), an urban planned mixed-use community in San Jose, CA (not my idea of a great place to live, but apparently it has become quite a successful development) ...

Santana Row surprisingly neighborly

San Jose Mercury Newshttp://www.mercurynews.com/images/common/spacer.gif
Sat, Oct. 15, 2005
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/attractions/12910458.htm


With a royal view of Santana Row from a perch in a bookstore balcony, Natalie Gevargiz nursed a cup of coffee and gazed upon the dreamlike Mediterranean village below.

"It is fake,'' the community college student said, "but at least you feel like you're in Europe, or in a different place than here.''


http://www.portfoliocondos.com/photo_gallery/images/1114719913_port_gallery6.jpg


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Here is suburban, west San Jose and Gevargiz was taking in the lovely view from the Borders bookstore of the new Our Town, in town. Technically speaking, Santana Row is a mixed retail, housing and entertainment complex.

The builder calls it an "urban neighborhood.'' Detractors call it a phony, elitist, Disneyland North -- the brute that knocked out punch-drunk downtown San Jose.

This much is certain:

In three short years, the "fake'' development has arguably turned into the city's favorite hangout for folks of all stripes. Most surprisingly, it's become a real neighborhood.

They're flocking to the 18 restaurants and bars, often filling dozens of sidewalk tables before sundown. On weekends the farmers markets are packed. And daily, pilgrims are plunking themselves on small town benches to read, work on laptops, people-watch, listen to music or surrender to a gentle snooze.

Even the perception that the ultra-chic shops don't do that well doesn't faze Fred Walters, who manages Santana Row for Federal Realty Investment Trust.

"Retail as a whole, we're doing quite well,'' he said. While Walters declined to share sales figures, he said Brooks Brothers, a new arrival, is "very hopeful with the results so far,'' and that shoppers also have mid-market stores to choose from.

http://www.interlandusa.com/Apartments/SanJose/SantanaRow/Photos/SR_TopView01.jpg


Sure people might grouse about the faux architecture, but too bad. Huge crowds are drawn in every day and deep into the nights by the very real ambience that is equally cozy and seductive.

Santana Row regulars include the numerous sidewalk diners like Vernon and Mark Thomason and Jeff Silver. The three businessmen sat together outside Sino, Santana Row's newest, hot restaurant.

"The street's trying to look old but it's not,'' Silver said of the main boulevard up the center of "town.'' "But to be honest, it's a fine place to be.''

Happily the trio ordered a few appetizers and two, $42 bottles of Esser chardonnay.

"These are the cheap bottles,'' Vernon Thomason said. ``You should have been here last week, when I think I spent $1,400 on wine, at least.''

Do they ever buy in the posh shops? They listed one $395 watch, one pair of $400 shoes, a couple of $75 shirts, and a dress or two for Vernon Thomason's wife.

"Oh, it's very expensive,'' he said.

As the happy hour progressed, other regulars and newcomers grabbed seats for one of the many free, al fresco jazz concerts.

While many unwind at Santana Row after work, other lucky ones go there to work.

Conrad Tinio and Reggie Cabael bring their laptops several times a week. They usually sit in the shady glen with cushioned furniture across from the bookstore balcony where Natalie Gevargiz was sipping coffee.

"My team is virtual,'' said Tinio, a financial analyst for Hewlett-Packard.

"When I need a change of scenery, I just come out here and turn on my laptop.''

Cabael, an outside salesman for a liquor company, said there aren't any other places in the city that offer "virtual'' workers Santana Row's combination of sweet sun, cool shade, food, drink, and welcoming atmosphere.

"To tell you the truth, I've never really paid attention to the architecture,'' Cabael said. "This is more for people-watching. And for new cars . . . a lot of really nice ones.''

One Ferrari-driving devotee of the Row, Mike Salinas, drives up from Gilroy with his family, mainly for the food and walking about.

"The thing about Santana Row is, everybody's so nice,'' said the real estate investor. "It's nice to walk around and window shop after you eat. It's safe for the kids, because when they say they want to go off on their own to another part of Santana Row, we don't have to worry about them.''

The Salinases and their friends are drawn to the bustling restaurants in clockwork fashion. Maggiano's Italian on Tuesdays. Yankee Pier seafood on Wednesdays.

"We've been to every restaurant on Santana Row. All the valets and waiters know us. We're regulars.''

Occasionally, Salinas will buy something in one of the stores, even though he says, ``The prices here are a little out of whack.''

But he owns a Ferrari!

"I have four kids in private school,'' he notes. "And I'm a tightwad!''


http://www.interlandusa.com/Apartments/SanJose/SantanaRow/Photos/0027.jpg


In the middle of one of the delightful parks, Wisdom Moon was teaching his wife, Brie, how to play chess. Their 2-week old son, Noah, slept in a baby carriage. A few feet in front of them, two other children played with huge, plastic chess pieces over an enormous concrete board.

The young couple lives only a quick drive away. Currently between jobs in Christian ministry, Wisdom Moon said, ``We actually never feel that we have to buy something in the stores. We mainly come here to eat and relax.''

The walking habits of another family -- the Razos -- may be the strongest sign yet that Santana Row is becoming the urban neighborhood its builder, Federal Realty Investment Trust, claimed it would.

Laura and Jose Razo live two blocks east of Santana Row, but they usually take after-dinner walks here.

"The architecture?'' asked Laura Razo. ``Well, I never really look up at it when I'm walking the dog. This place is great for people-watching and meeting new people on the street.''

Former residents of San Mateo, the Razos used to hang out in San Francisco. When they moved to San Jose, they chose to live near Santana Row for its close proximity to their son's new school.

"We didn't think we'd be walking here almost every night, but we are,'' Laura Razo said. "Santana Row has become our neighborhood.''

http://www.lgc.org/freepub/images/sr_border.jpg


http://www.chikawatanabe.com/blog/images/santana_row.JPG


http://www.pcfma.com/images/markets/img418a7bf7e57fd.jpg


More Here:


European living in San Jose:
Santana Row condos step out onto lively urban scene

http://www.interlandusa.com/Apartments/SanJose/SantanaRow/Photos/9976.jpg

Judy Richter, (jrichter@sfchronicle.com)
Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, October 2, 2005

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/02/REGHNEVCOC1.DTL&hw=Santana+Row&sn=002&sc=802


Since opening in November 2002, Santana Row has become a popular, lively shopping and entertainment attraction in San Jose.

This 42-acre European-inspired center, built on the site of the former Town & Country Village at the southeast corner of Winchester and Stevens Creek boulevards, has dozens of high-end stores, more than a dozen restaurants, a movie theater, the Hotel Valencia and other commercial ventures centered on a 1,500-foot-long main street, Santana Row.

In all, the project has 558,000 square feet of retail space and 213 hotel rooms plus a parking structure.

Upstairs from the retail businesses are 511 residential units ranging from no-nonsense 700-square-foot, one-bedroom condos to luxurious, three-story villas with up to 3,876 square feet, four bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms.

Initially, all of the units were leased, but now 219 are being sold or will be sold as condos, said Jeff Berkes, senior vice president of Federal Realty Investment Trust in Rockville, Md., owner and developer of Santana Row.

Called Portfolio at Santana Row, the for-sale units are in three buildings. Current tenants have the first chance to buy them. A significantly high percentage of the tenants are buying them, Berkes said, but he couldn't be specific because not all transactions are final.

Prices for the 100 units in the Margo Building start in the high $400,000s for the one-bedroom units and go up to the $900,000 range for units with three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a den.

The villas in the Villa Cornet Building start in the low $1 million range, Berkes said.

[Citytect]

Then what is the best way to go?

Hard to say. Borrowing ideas from the past is a good thing, but this level of imitation is pushing the limits.

And I don't think everything about Celebration is terrible. I'd just prefer to see something more forward-looking and less nostalgic.

[Ebryan]

Hard to say. Borrowing ideas from the past is a good thing, but this level of imitation is pushing the limits.

And I don't think everything about Celebration is terrible. I'd just prefer to see something more forward-looking and less nostalgic.

Generally, I agree, at least in terms of the home architecture in Celebration. There are current trends in home design, especially in South Florida, that they could have brought into the mix (I will call it art deco revival because I don't think it really has a name yet). However, downtown Celebration succeeds in defying nostalgia, as its architecture does not conjure up some emotional attachment to another time and place, instead it says "This is Celebration!" You can thank Robert Stern for that.