What
if they built a city and nobody came? (An intriguing thought but
perhaps not the case here as corporate inertia and massive
marketing will guarantee build-out.) In this instance I feel a
strange sense of loss even though perhaps at first blush a
Classicist’s dreams are about to come true. While many
traditional/Classicist architects and designers have decried the
Modernist’s indiscriminate foray into the built environment and
hoped that the tide would someday turn back to a widespread use of
classical or formal design principles coupled with a more
traditional and organic planning theory, the concept of a Utopian
setting to showcase a ‘return to tradition’ has not been attempted
at this scale (except in Leon Krier’s fantasies) in three
dimensions. Until now.
In late February this year several local architects and
residential designers were invited to a preview of Disney’s
‘Celebration’. This master-planned city of 20,000 will have
state-of-the-art health and educational facilities, a town center
designed by the usual cadre of ‘important’ period style architects
(including a rather surprising modernesque Philip Johnson entry)
and approximately 8,000 residential lots of differing types and
sizes, the widest being 90 feet with 15 foot side setbacks.
The project manager, a Princeton architectural graduate with an MBA, insisted that the goal of the master
plan was to induce a sense of community; the expectation is to
achieve a varied mix of age groups and economic backgrounds where
families would continue to live there throughout several
generations. And there was a meticulously researched and produced
architectural control standards manual (based on the ‘pattern’
books of yesteryear) illustrating the acceptable styles for the
residential units: Classical, Victorian, Colonial Revival,
Coastal, Mediterranean, and
French.
Architectural control includes inviolable first and second floor
heights as well as window and door types, setbacks, massing and
materials use per each distinct style. Porch, roof, and facade
treatments have recommended design standards as well. The picket
fences, common areas, and shady boulevards as shown in the
conceptual watercolor perspectives achieve a
Mayberry-Savannah-Charleston feel with happy residents apparently
enjoying the good life sitting at single and upper story front
porches (highly recommended) watching the world go by.
I could not put my finger on what was troubling me except I
remember that I felt either God was in the planning or I was
hearing the drums of the Third Reich. The Strathmore model of the
town center looked a bit contrived. Here were Pelli’s, Venturi’s,
Stern’s, and Moore’s little monuments in the form of a bank,
theater, apartment, office building, cultural center, lookout
tower, etc. all arranged neatly on separate blocks. It seemed
like a swell theme park to live in. Everything had its place, the
main boulevard was on axis leading by the commercial zone to the
lake-front promenade with intersecting streets that allowed a
minimum of parking.
Further setback were the residential areas each grouped according
to the size of the lots with alleys separating types and also
eliminating the unsightly two or three door garage viewed from the
front of the main street, no doubt a clear improvement over
America’s typical suburban layouts. Everything seemed as perfect
as possible. Sometime after 1940 it was pointed out,
“...architecture took a right, we are trying to continue the
development (of well designed buildings, implied) as if it was
never interrupted; we are taking the left fork in the road.” Very
true, I agreed, the Modernists surely drowned this country and the
world with their banal excess of stripped down functionalism. I
was rooting yet skeptical at the same time. A little voice inside
me told me to stand up and defend... something--that was missing
perhaps.
I asked if the entry points were to be gated. “Not foreseen, we
want this to be an open community.” What about security
concerns? “No crime anticipated at the moment.” We chuckled at
the vision of 40’s black and whites roaming the streets. Will the
town center be able to sustain itself? “All space currently
pre-leased.” How can you make people sit out on the front porches
in Florida’s heat and mosquito swarms, especially since you are
not allowing screened enclosures? “The overhead fans will cool
and dispel the swarms.” Well, there was nothing more to
criticize, Disney had it all figured out. Satisfied we all left
and thanked our host.
The next day I communicated the
following in part:
“I am especially interested in the
theme and architectural character you are promoting and preserving
since I too find period style designs much more satisfying than
Modern or Post-Modern work. In the residential field it is rare
to find many clients who wish for a truly avant-garde theme a la
Corbusier, Mies, or for that matter Frank Lloyd Wright! My
background, that is the way I was instructed to approach the
design of buildings, precluded the reference to any historical
style and only after thinking it through myself I came to develop
through research, study, recollection, and practice my
interpretation of the classics as have all architects from the
Renaissance on. I would like to comment on Disney’s goals at
Celebration if you permit: Since I have lived overseas for at
least half of my life I am more inclined to prefer that
association with humanity that occurs in the simple day to day mix
of events and contact that occurs in a city where there is more of
a historical mix and slightly higher density and interzoned
commercial/residential areas where I have found the experience to
be most conducive to interaction (like it or not) with random
encounters and the convenience of goods and services available on
the first floor of my apartment building even! Your model reminds
me somewhat of Izmir, Turkey which is situated on the edge of a bay. If the residential areas are
then also situated on the flanks of the town center (instead of
away in one direction) then children and pedestrian adults will
have more of a chance to pass through the center as they might
find themselves visiting friends and perhaps conducting business
from one end of the city to the other. In a small community of
20,000 I recall the traditional
Texas county courthouse and CBD
ringing around it, completely surrounded by residential areas
which tends to pull people into the middle and thus create a
visible life.
I realize that your model
incorporates the European traditional building forms in an
American town setting, but wouldn’t the more successful model
(especially for the viability of the commercial activity) be to
complete the circle and re-introduce the classic Italian, French
or German prototype? Maybe this will be the theme of Celebration
II? The other irony of Celebration is that I recall Walt’s intent
for EPCOT was for a viable ‘City of the Future’ which implied real
examples of futuristic living and working (technological progress,
etc.) nodes and the corresponding buildings. I guess we have
looked into the future and really didn’t want where the
‘right-hand’ fork was leading. For now, unless there is a proven
better alternative I must agree with the premise that Celebration
takes and its intent to re-educate
America on what a community should really consist of. You have here a utopian
layout that will re-ignite a spark of remembrance and longing in
all who visit.”
But that uneasy sensation kept grinding in my stomach. Finally I
put it together: First, like Seaside, this community was designed
to keep the visitor uncomfortable from just wandering into town
and enjoying the sights. Second, with so much architectural
control the organic tendency for creative growth was nipped before
the bud like an Orwellian injection. Even with six allowable
styles that quixotic architectural invention that makes a street-scape
so charming and vital was not possible. A Victorian motif grafted
onto Colonial Revival didn’t seem credible. Mixing Mediterranean
with Classical outlawed Palladio. Why, no Modernist touches were
even thinkable! (I was surprising myself pushing for a bit of
‘contemporary’ styling).
I had also just finished reading London’s Georgian Houses
by Andrew Byrne and was reminded why I detest so much of Colonial
America (and can excuse the older east coast ‘white architects’
for their productions): the overwhelming boredom and
predictability of Georgian architecture. That stripped down
classicism that permeates the Eastern seaboard, the red brick that
continues to be mimicked ad-nauseum to this date, is loathsome.
In a wonderful apologia for the Baroque, Heinrich Wolfflin
in his book Renaissance and Baroque re-introduces the
theory of ‘blunted sensibility’. He suggests that “the forms of
the Renaissance had ceased to exert their charm, so that the
too-often-seen was no longer effective and that jaded
sensibilities demanded a more powerful impact. Architecture
changed in order to supply this demand...” In a closed system as
promoted by Disney’s Celebration the potential for ‘jaded
sensibility’ is even more acute: The lot sizes are too uniform;
setbacks and heights are controlled. The expectation is that the
six styles offered by themselves will be of sufficient diversity
to relieve the possibility of monotony.
“...Yet
if the only form of tradition, of handing down, consisted in
following the ways of the immediate generation before us in a
blind or timid adherence to its successes, ‘tradition’ should be
positively discouraged.”
R. Venturi, 1966
Although the implicit goals of Disney are to introduce innovation
for the better, their master plan has not sufficiently advanced
modern urban planning practice in this case except to
sterilize further. The free-standing artificiality of the town
center reads more like an extension of Universal’s or Disney’s own
facade-citecture at their studio lots. I will always
prefer the historical prototype of the European (Italian, Greek,
German, or French) town square with its natural liveliness and
spontaneity that is so completely absent from American CBD’s.
(For that matter the caricature replicas of Old World themes in
Disney World appear to be more people oriented than at
Celebration!) The integration of many urban themes are required
to present an enriching environment, especially in the
‘downtown’. For example the infill of many years’ growth,
contraction, and rebuilding is vital to establish a thread of
continuity and adds an indispensable degree of enrichment to the
urban condition.
Everything of age in this country was indiscriminately torn down
to make way for economic progress until the preservation movement
took hold. What makes the Continental example so compelling is
the mix of old (history) and new, the density and mix of
commercial and residential, and the evidence of life --as
witnessed by people enjoying their walking, chance social
meetings, shopping and watching, eating and playing, etc. The
main issue under contention is that Celebration isolates and zones
functions like so many other modern plans which results in the
same automobile centered or formally laid out suburban design.
Consider the simple presence of street vendors (outlawed
typically) which add so much color to the street life. And when
the new Interstates bypassed so many of our nation’s older
communities even the opportunity for the tourist, traveler,
stranger (gasp!) to enrich the citizenry by the chance meeting in
the town square or at the market was extinguished. The complete
interaction with the outside world is nullified. The town dies.
This dilemma is especially true with planned towns such as
Celebration and Seaside and the host of others ‘a l’Americaine’.
“The
beautiful cities of Europe, the cities that are constantly
taken as illustrations of what modern cities should be, are
without exception the result of a picturesque, accidental
growth, regulated, it is true, by considerable common sense
and respect for art, but improved and again improved by
replanning and remodeling to fit changed conditions and new
ideals. It is here that we fall short.”
Celebration has been thriving
for over 5 years at the time of this writing. Recently, Disney sold off
its interests in the ‘downtown’ area. I had written an extensive essay at
its inception and became interested how the last phases of construction
were coming along and if my views about its philosophical and marketing
aspects had changed. I also wanted to make a conclusion about the forced
program of Period Style architecture and if it had served New Urbanism
well in this case.
On a recent excursion to see the Frank Lloyd Wright campus in
Lakeland, I decided to take another look at the community after traffic
towards Tampa from downtown Orlando had stalled. I took the last exit west
into the town. The access road dumped into the last extension of the
town’s road network parallel to the interstate. My first glimpse was of a
new school, probably a middle school, with a sort of retro look. Heading
northward, we passed a fire station, also done in retro deco. Down the
palm lined road, in a short time the housing district appeared to the
right and we turned into the fringe of the newest developed area.
The houses here repeated the same themes initially set at inauguration.
There were winding roads, narrow, where a series of predominantly New
England styled homes were sited very close to the curb. There were
sidewalks and more landscaping at the edge of the walks and the property
with fast growing trees helping to soften and often obscure the facades.
Cleverly hidden away were the narrow rear access alleys that carried the
private traffic off of the subdivision streets and into the rear-loaded
two and three car garages. Trash collection occurs here as well and is
apparently where most of the children play and adults might meet with
their neighbors.
There is scarcely a soul stirring on the front yards and
virtually no one sitting in the bewildering army of empty front porches,
so delightfully finished with classical columns and fretwork. It seems
nearly 98% of all houses in Celebration have front porches. This was a
Saturday. Cool weather in early March. Cyclists, skateboarders, and young
parents with strollers in sparse numbers took to the out of doors. No one
was rocking in their chairs on the porches, no one was exchanging
pleasantries with neighbors out front, no one washed a car in the street,
no one was playing catch, no one was teaching a child to ride a bicycle.
In fact, as usual in every instance I have visited Celebration, the town
seemed not exactly abandoned, but put on ‘sleep mode’ if you will.
Down several streets and avenues, the preponderance of
colonial styled homes numbed the senses. These were accurate distillations
of the ‘type’, as mandated by a very heavy-handed design covenant. While
several, I believe 7, styles are ‘allowed’, most homeowners in Celebration
apparently prefer American Colonial. Even though built in Florida,
Celebration has turned into a homogenous enclave of evidently like-minded
folk as far as preference in home style is concerned. The regional
‘Mediterranean’ style is scarcely represented. When it is, the homes stick
out like sore thumbs.
The second most popular style in Celebration is Victorian.
They look very nice, especially on corner lots, where sweeping porches
wrap around the house. There were a number of Charleston styled plans,
inserted on very narrow lots, again with rear alley garages. We found the
high-end sections of the subdivision, somewhat hidden away, where lots
were a bit larger. In those areas there was a better mix of styles. A new
French Chateau was under construction and a n extensive Victorian mansion
was finishing up.
In contrast to the small looking homes on postage sized lots
are larger boulevards with center greenways and amenities bounded by three
to five story apartment blocks. These are well proportioned and better
detailed than the typical apartment complex built for the bottom line
only. They have a look of Bath, England. There is even a block executed in
a crescent shape. Overall construction quality is average to very good.
The idea of offering up smaller lots for the single family detached
homes is a compromise in order to give back green space to the residents.
Public swimming pools and ball fields are interspersed throughout the
town. There are ‘commons’ with pergolas and seating areas. Ponds and raw
land slightly trimmed back also offer welcome relief and outdoor
discovery.
I felt a queasy feeling of being lost in a morphing morass of
beige colored houses, in some areas reminiscent of worker housing on the
fringes of larger metro areas, all set off by a sea of front porches. In
fact, there was not sufficient difference in color and style throughout to
distinguish most houses from each other. I am certain youngsters crying
‘I'm lost’ have been heard over and over. This could have been a New
England town, but certainly with less charm and interest.
Saturday is market day in Celebration, which is probably why there were a
good number of pedestrians seen in the ‘downtown’ area. But unlike in
historic market squares, the market in Celebration is set up in a parking
lot slightly out of view. This allows the center to remain unobstructed by
unsightly tents, etc. There were people sitting at the edge of the
artificial lake, taking in the sun, reading, and just plain chilling out.
It was a good mix consisting of residents, a few tourists, and those from
outside the town who came for the market.
The downtown, consisting of a very small group of two to five
story structures in a five to eight block area, is really non-functional.
Meaning that business in Celebration is virtually nil except for three or
four restaurants. This is why Disney recently sold it. They were tired of
subsidizing a forced reality. There is one hotel, one movie theater, one
bank, one deli, one post office, and the town hall. There are small shops
in-between that cannot survive, simply because there is not sufficient
density here or in any other similar New-Urbanist concoction. We saw one
gothic styled church, apparently interdenominational. On the fringes of
town property are several more conventional office blocks set in a surreal
fascist landscape. Nearby is a state of the art hospital.
There are several school buildings also. These buildings are designed for
SUV toting kids: a parallel driveway allows parents to line up every
morning and evening to let off and pick up their children in utmost
safety. I am not sure what these schools are really like on the other side
of the covered walkways bordering the classrooms.
Celebration has a golf course. The clubhouse is on center
with the town’s most European styled boulevard. In the center is a narrow
water way. On each side are townhouse like buildings, presumably condos.
This sort of Hausmann inspired axis culminates in the town square: a four
benched oasis with small fountain. From there, the boulevard is a two-way
street bordered with shops containing apartments above, ending at the
artificial pond or lake that borders the main drag, a short curved street
on which most activity occurs. (Wetland mitigation was offered for much of
the land rights.)
Nearly all parking for apartments and office renters are
inside the large blocks that comprise the downtown, well screened from the
public eye. That is, the buildings are on the perimeter while the interior
of the block is reserved for parking, which means that Celebration is much
smaller than it looks. A credit towards energy conservation must be given
for the electric carts that are available for rental or owned by the
residents. Credit must be deducted however for the wasted infrastructure
due to the duplicitous alleys, that if not planned in this manner, would
result in automobile garages visible from the street – a no-no to the
avante garde thinking by the planners and architects.
Of course the real reason home buyers are drawn to the charms
of Celebration is for the preservation of property values. Home there cost
20-35% more than like-size comps area-wide. Resale value is excellent,
appreciation is well above average. Security has been outstanding, the
crime rate one of the lowest around. The roads are clean, everything looks
quite new and well kept. There were other reasons initially: ‘community’,
innovation, a city that you could work and live in without commuting, etc.
(originally conceived as a retro EPCOT – Experimental Prototype City of
Tomorrow) but the Disney nomer and its advantages is really the bottom
line.
About 25 years ago I was
invited by a college friend, whom I met in the architectural curriculum at
Texas A&M, to his home in a ritzy north Dallas suburb. Not ever having
experienced a community with rear loaded garages in alleys (I was raised
overseas in Greece and Turkey in apartment or condo style blocks), we came
upon a swath of brick French inspired homes on slightly rolling hills.
There was no one to be seen. I had the same eerie feeling that everyone
had either been ‘beamed up’ into alien spacecraft or that we had just
arrived at the tail end of the ‘rapture’. Celebration is like that. During
a weekend, it seems even more strange, unlikely.
The reality is that all who live in Celebration commute out
to their daily jobs – miles away. All who work in Celebration cannot
afford to live there; they commute in. So, pollution, energy waste, etc.
is not ameliorated. The tightly written and blindly enforced architectural
design code allows for absolutely no innovation. So, we have the worst
nightmare of academic classicism going on: dryly reproduced period style
architecture ad nauseum. Except of course in the downtown area where the
signature architects could not bear following any restrictions whatsoever.
There, we have a bit of decon, a bit of Disney fantasy (the colors are
really bothersome), and a little neo classicism in the background
buildings.
Conclusion
“An Honest
to Goodness Town” – one of the first billboards announcing the
opening of Celebration, now replaced by billboards begging the
consumer to visit the downtown merchants, who for some reason, are
not getting the business, (read: volume) they have to have in
order to stay solvent. Ergo, the heavy marketing to attract the
tourist dollar.
On the
southwest portion of the metro area, close to the theme parks,
tourist attractions, and the gaudy retail strips, lies nested the
town of Celebration. This master-planned city of 20,000 includes
purported state-of-the-art health and educational facilities, a
town center designed by the usual cadre of ‘important’ period
style architects, and residential lots ringing the center. There
is a small lake at the core, the landscape amenity. The street
planning and zoning indicates a mix of uses at the core and single
family lots strung around curving streets with boulevards and
dedicated open spaces relieving the relatively higher suburban
density.
The $2.5
billion project is built on 4,900 acres of swamp and farmland, and
will have 20,000 residents housed in 8,000 units within 10 - 15
years of completion. Already the first phase is sold out (a
lottery was held) and new satellite subdivisions are selling
lots. Robert Stern has likened the surrounding strip development
to Kansas, Celebration to the land of Oz.
The
architectural control for the residential lots is spelled out in a
72-page pattern book where six styles are allowed, with no
deviation. Each style has its own distinct vocabulary of
elements, coloration, roof-line, etc. No elevations can be
duplicated, each buildout must offer a ‘gift’ to the street – a
special architectural element such as a bay window, portico, etc.
The principal
draw was an innovative elementary school (recently come under
attack) and nearby health resort facilities and a hospital (which
hasn’t managed to secure a license do to overcapacity in the
region.)
The racial mix
is reported to resemble the Orlando metro area: predominantly
white, about 10% Hispanic, 6% African American, and 2% Asian. The
cost of purchasing the residential units is from 20 to 40% higher
than same size on same lot in surrounding developments.
“Celebration is for persons whose income is $36,000+ at a minimum
even for a small one bedroom apartment… about 80% of the American
population and about 99% of Disney employees make less than
$36,000 per year..” (http://www.phoenixat.com/~vnn2/CELEBNEW.HTM)
The parti is
simply this: expensive homes on tight lots, strung around a town
center, nostalgia the theme: Americana. Name brand architects are
a peripheral issue. The point is that Disney implicitly
guarantees happiness. Happiness, physical security, a protection
from vagrancy and crime, over-crowding, loss of property values.
The American flag, baseball, and apple pie. Clean, sparkling new,
it is a marketing triumph no doubt. And it appears
impeachable.
What are the
positive aspects of Celebration?
1. It
promotes traditional architecture (but denigrates historic urban
form.)
2. It
advances a notion of order, cleanliness, color – positive
attributes of the city.
3. Garage
apartments are encouraged for rental to singles, single
professionals.
4. The
downtown has an attractive look, but the congestion already
requires bussing from remote parking lots.
5. It is a
successful (to date) money-making enterprise for a corporate
giant.
6. Disney
supplements county police with private patrols.
What are Celebration’s negative aspects?
Walt Disney’s
concept for the Experimental City of Tomorrow (EPCOT) was for an
urban center containing a population of 20,000. A 50 acre hub of
high-rise office buildings and shops enclosed in a dome would be
encircled by high density housing situated in ‘park-like’
neighborhoods . Monorails and ‘people movers’ were the sole means
of transit; automobiles were banned. Industrial parks would be
zoned away from the residential areas. Growth was limited to an
ideal size. Similar to More’s Utopia, the plan would be
duplicated in its entirety if expansion was necessary. There was
one problem: “ if people lived on the property, they might vote.
They might get uppity and do something the company didn’t want.”
(Steve Emmons, L.A. Times) Ergo, the overwhelming control
evidenced today in Celebration.
Celebration
appears to be an Experimental City of Yesterday (writer Russ Rymer,
in Harper’s)—the “pre-40’s yesterday” at the dawn of America’s
fastest rate of suburbanization. It is a sell-out to commercial
greed comprising environmental destruction and resource waste.
Where went the original altruism, the future-think? Apparently
Disney now believes that the building of infrastructure breeds
community: “If you’re building a house at Celebration, you’re
building more than just an individual house on an individual lot;
you’re creating community” (Project Manager, Joe Barnes). Peter Rummel (president, Disney Design and Development) was correct
observing that community consisted of “…something more than
tee-off times every Saturday morning to hold people together.”
(from Harper’s interview). Rymer observed on site that there was
“…a hollowness at its core, the absence of a bona fide purpose
such as inspired the creation of most towns.”
Celebration is
an arrogant re-definition of the American suburban dream. This
weak example of retro-urbanism parallels our revivals of music and
fashion. The oeuvre has finally reached the built environment.
It is ‘feel-good’, it is nostalgic. Building an Instant City,
Community – is a monumental goal. But as Bernard Rudofsky notes
in Streets for People, “…a town is not the result of a design
program; it is the reflection of a way of life.” Here, the most
amazing accomplishment, has been the rapid build-out of
infrastructure – but at what cost? The buildings are nice, but
not exceptional: there is not one piece of outstanding
architecture. It resembles a brand new toy train city.
1.
Celebration was built on protected wetlands. $15 million was paid
in mitigation to gain the use of a natural environment closest to
commercial interests.
2. There
is no self-government nor an ideological basis for community. (
President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development has
concluded that communities should develop their own strategies for
sustainable design). As pointed out by Hannah Arendt in Men in
Dark Times, Aristotle claimed that philia, the friendship between
citizens, is a fundamental requirement for the well-being of the
city.
3. It is
a suburb on steroids, with no advance of the urban form.
4. It is
isolated, there is a feeling of ‘off-limits’ to the visitor,
exclusive.
5. It is
a ghetto of the privileged wrapped in the nostalgic shroud of
neo-traditionalism. “The question is whether we…as a society will
muster the will and the resources in the new millennium to make
that the millennium when America finally works for all
Americans.” (Hugh Price, President National Urban League)
6. Like
dying downtowns and eroding, crumbling urban areas, gimmickry and
‘touristic’ events must be resorted to in order to inject life
into the public spaces. “The day when you could have tall-corn
days or dollar days or dream up some fake celebration and deck the
place up with bunting and pull in big crowds that were ready to
spend money is past…” (Clifford D. Simak, City 1952)
7. There
is an overwhelming sense of control, totalitarianism. Not all
planners agree on a completely top-down design for city and
community infrastructure. AIA Gold Medallist Christopher
Alexander does not believe in an ‘urban code’.
8. There
is a loss of individual (unhindered) stamp of creativity and
contribution. The architectural and planning code is too rigid:
it does not allow for individual expression. Are the inhabitants
of Celebration allowed to put their individual ‘mark’ on anything
in the town? “Pride in your community can only be generated if
you have some say in how it looks or how it is managed.” (H.R.H.
The Prince of Wales)
9.
Uniformity in suburban zones induces monotony despite 6 allowable
styles. In contrast Prince Charles’ Poundbury refuses uniformity
at any level. In addition, there is a dissonance between 4 or 5
of the Post-Modernist structures in the downtown and an attempt at
a delicate orchestration of period style architecture in the
residential areas.
10. The
downtown is sterilized and artificial, color coordinated by one
person apparently. This plastic newness pervades and will not be
allowed to weather over time. Single developer build-out is
detrimental to variety in texture, form, quality, luxury, detail,
etc. “Intricacy and variety of surrounding buildings,
unpredictable changes in views, and hidden architectural treasures
stimulate curiosity and interest in the setting and encourage
exploration.” (Suzanne H. Crowhurst Lennard and Henry L. Lennard,
Livable Cities Observed)
11. There is
no sense of historical growth, contraction, -- it is a frozen
concoction of a distilled version of an urban place, fulfilling
the vision of corporate management. “The architecture of the city
embodies the city’s memory. The city’s form, its architecture,
its public places and civic and cultural institutions are the
collective autobiography of the city’s inhabitants.” (Suzanne H.
Crowhurst Lennard and Henry L. Lennard, Livable Cities Observed)
12. There is
very little mixed use.
13.
Infrastructure is duplicated: back alleys, resources wasted
still. Higher densities would allow more shared party walls, etc.
14. Low
densities require full use of automobile. There is some danger to
young children in the short blocks and alleys multiplied in the
residential sectors.
15. Lack of
serendipity, predictable and boring. Kevin Lynch points out that
“…there is some value in mystification, labyrinth, or surprise in
the environment.”
16. Jaquelin
Robertson, Celebration’s planner, was quoted as saying “The test
of any decent town... is whether you want to stop, park your car
and get out and walk...” Here there is no exceptional art,
architecture, craft detail, special commercial interest,
interesting avenue, urban streetscape, captivating view, natural
landscape, socio or political event, nor historical motive to
interest anyone.
17. Too
intended towards perpetual perfection throughout. The future has
been written on the pastel walls. “Rome was not built in a day.”
(“Can community values and small-town charm be reduced to a set of
blueprints?” Jeffrey Brainard, St. Petersburg Times) Of entire
neighborhoods being constructed all at once, Jane Jacobs
writes:“…such neighborhoods have been handicapped in every way, so
far as generating diversity is concerned, We cannot blame their
poor staying power and stagnation entirely on their most obvious
misfortune: being built all at once….Large swatches of
construction built at one time are inherently inefficient for
sheltering wide ranges of cultural, population, and business
diversity.”
18. More
pollution: most commute in and out.
19. Lack of
provision for disadvantaged, aged, young, etc. “Celebration lacks
affordable housing and some other features common to small
Southern towns – a church, ball fields, a senior center, nursing
home, a graveyard and a day-care center.” Orlando Sentinel, 9/
22/ 96
20. In 1898
social critic Richard Ely concluded that the near perfect company
town of Pullman, Illinois was “…un-American. It is a nearer
approach than anything the writer has seen to what appears to be
the ideal of the great German Chancellor. It is not the American
ideal. It is benevolent, well-wishing feudalism, which desires the
happiness of the people, but in such way as shall please the
authorities.”
21. There is
no “organized complexity” (Jane Jacobs). There is no synergy in a
pre-planned community. Could we way this might have been the
downfall of Priene even? No, because Hippodamus only offered the
grid and probably located the central buildings. The citizens
then filled out that grid piece by piece, amongst themselves.
22.
Celebration is not organic, it does not have ‘organizational
depth’. Disney’s designers have attempted to build-in time,
cultural variety, and depth – but only on a superficial level.
The city is a “social work of art” (Claude Levi Strauss) “Setting
for a goal a historical theme or a singular time period cuts off
the organic development of a community and substitutes a stage
set. It is formula thinking at its worst.” (Roberta Brandes Gratz,
The Living City).
23. So,
“where’s the beef”, where is the diversity? Geared towards the
upper middle class, no real social or economic mix to create a
natural diversity that sparks business, intellectual, or social
growth. “In our American cities, we need all kinds of diversity,
intricately mingled in mutual support…Flourishing diversity
anywhere in a city means the mingling of high-yield,
middling-yield, low-yield and no-yield enterprises.” (Jane
Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities)
24. And where
is the ‘public realm’? The only public square is measly, it
merely pays lip service --an isolated island surrounded by asphalt
with no real social amenity. The people are ensconced in their
air-conditioned idyll. The lake’s boardwalk is the principal
vehicle to induce social interaction.
25.
Celebration does not promote community. One buys into the town to
evade that very responsibility. “We alone regard the man who
holds aloof from the city’s business not as ‘quiet’ but as
useless.” (Pericles) “Community is founded in participation,
cooperation, and shared goals …For some it is defined by
geographic boundaries, while for others, community is bound by
political, professional, or religious convictions.” (Asst. Ed.
Diana Friedman, Metropolis)
26. The
people are actually afraid to wander about and reluctant to
discuss the community. Gag orders prohibit the disenchanted from
discussing their gripes in order to break their contract and
leave. There is too much pressure to succeed, too much publicity,
too many reporters and photographers. The people hide from the
stranger. The signs sprouting on many lawns are the most
diplomatic way of saying ‘please leave us alone and get away from
here’.
27. This is a
monocultural enclave. The ‘defense of privilege’ for the
economically well to do implies the loss of opportunity, equality
for others in the society at large.
28. As for
Urban Design: there is no historical integrity between the period
style of the overwrought housing standards and the unraveled
cacophony of styles delivered by the ego-maniacal marquee
designers and architects commissioned for the commercial
buildings.
29. New Towns
like Celebration and Kentlands do not have enough density or
critical mass to stimulate real commercial activity within their
boundaries; the result is the continual commute to the regional
malls, cultural and entertainment centers, etc. They are just not
self-sufficient to the degree necessary to contain the majority of
activity on a pedestrian or even automobile basis. As pointed out
in Livable Cities Observed: “The market was the primary function
of most medieval cities, and the city grew in direct response to
the market’s success.” Celebration’s social engineering brings
people together first, then expects market forces to be
generated.
Herman
Hertzberger has stated: “The more influence a person is able to
exert on his surroundings, the more committed he becomes.” This
is the root of Celebration’s principal and underlying weakness.
Those living in the suburban areas never had nor will probably
ever command any influence over their physical or social
environment. It is completely canned. “The best experts in a
city are its users. The vision for a place should come from the
community up, not from City Hall down.” (Roberta Brandes Gratz,
The Living City). Ely remarked about Pullman: “There is a
repression here as elsewhere of any marked individuality.”
There has been
a lot of press concerning this development. The newspaper and
trade media generally tends toward extolling the positive with
minor exceptions. Many physical environmental and social issues
have not been addressed here. The developer has carefully written
in gag provisions in the contracts prohibiting unsatisfied owners
from describing their situations to the media. This type of
control is a precision effort at censorship. The Celebration
Company has reserved indefinitely the right to “disapprove any
action, policy or program of the Association.” Upon hearing this
fact in an interview by Michael Pollan for Conde Nast’s Home and
Garden, Evan McKenzie, author of Privatopia exclaimed: “This is
unheard of…the homeowners are powerless against the association
and the association is powerless against Disney. I can’t imagine
anything more undemocratic – it’s absolute top-down control.”
There is a
difference between creating community for private gain and
creating community for the good of society as a whole. And
“creating a community is like making wine: It takes time” (James
Moore, Assoc. Prof. Univ. of South Florida). The developer of
Celebration has not advanced the culture of the city, the art of
the urban form. Rather, it has merely drawn the strings a bit
tighter on the status quo. Celebration attempts mixed use. It is
minimal. The suburban form persists. Celebration resembles the
many recent high-end exclusive communities that are really
boutique retirement ghettos, where individual creativity and
contribution is strait-jacketed. It is nothing much more than
that.
Celebration
has been compared to another theme park. Many who visit claim it
was constructed to be available as a set for a future movie. Is
it a town or a theme park branded by an icon of the entertainment
empire? Celebration is a brilliant work of marketing. Nothing
more. It cannot be seriously examined, nor should anyone go to
great lengths formulating a thesis. It is simply a successful
business endeavor. Cleverly making claims for a prototype
community for the better, the corporate giant has merely extracted
more profit out of a gullible public, one which believes the magic
is impenetrable, impeachable.
There was
something altruistic about this American icon at one time. Pixie
dust has clouded the brains of many who have bought into the dream
being sold at Celebration. Disney management has admitted that
“Celebration is not for everyone.” Does the design of Celebration
satisfy Bacon’s dictum of the city to ‘intensify the drama of
living’?
John Henry is a
practicing Architect with offices in Orlando, Florida. He holds a
Bachelor of Environmental Design and Master of Architecture from Texas A&M University.
