I feel the need to share some very interesting information...
To refresh memories and bring others up to speed, I'm acquaintances with an elderly gentleman named Tom K (last name withheld for privacy). He and his wife go to my church and live near me. We don't "hang out", but we're good "church friends". They're heavily involved with the church festival I help run, so we see a lot of each other every July, specifically.
Tom is probably about 70. He owned a landscape maintenance company in Vero Beach called Kare by K*. He also owned a nursery/flower shop called The Flower Box, which still exists and is owned by the people who bought it from him when he left Florida in 1984.
I've shared before that I learned from him a couple years ago that he was instrumental in the design and implementation of the Poly water features. When I first found out, I was overwhelmed. But given his health conditions at the time, I didn't push too far for details.
He submitted a design for the main water feature outside the front door, and was given the contract. He and his family met Roy when he came through their hotel to personally greet all the 3rd party local contractors. Pretty cool story.
Anyway, Saturday I was at the church for the last day of the festival. I was just hanging around, waiting to start breaking things down, and he was there waiting for his wife (she heads up our clean-up volunteers).
Since it was just he and I, I decided to ease into the Disney topic. Keep in mind that he's not a Disney fan, and I don't think he's even been since he took his kids when they lived in Florida. He has no agenda and no insight on what's going on. I assume he doesn't even talk about it, except for the few times I've discussed it with him.
Here's the best paraphrasing I can do from memory....but the interesting parts are near verbatim:
<small talk>
Me: Hey Tom, I remember you telling me about you being involved with the landscape features at the Polynesian hotel at Disney.
Him: Right, yeah, boy that was a long time ago. Hell, that was...what.....40 years ago?
Me: Actually, about 43 years from when it all opened. But you had a hand in the big waterfalls right?
Him: Yeah, we designed them...Disney built them. Well, we designed the one outside the front door.
Me: Oh, so did you have any involvement with the big one in the lobby?
Him: Yeah, the hotel was about ten percent from being finished and they still hadn't figured out what they were going to do there in the middle. Their designers were too busy, so they asked me for ideas since I had done the one outside. We came up with that monster and they built it pretty quickly.
Me: Well, here we are 43 years later, and they've just torn the thing out. They're saying it's because it's full of mold.
Him: I'm sure it is! Everyone was worried about that when we put the damn thing in! Nobody thought it would last ten years before they'd have to wreck it. You can't throw together a waterfall inside a building in Florida with a roof full of skylights over it.
Me: (after I chuckled a bit in amazement) Yeah, supposedly it's pretty bad. Moldy, and they can't repair the pump systems any more or access the skylights. It's a shame they're tearing it out....I know you don't do the internet thing, but there are a lot of people who are upset about this.
Him: Well, I'm glad people enjoyed it. What are they going to put there instead?
Me: Ummmm.....not quite sure yet, but it looks like a small sculpture or fountain.
I claim no insider status, but I do believe the best information comes directly from the source. I found it extremely interesting that the indoor water feature was possibly a "last minute" decision, and I further find it interesting that those involved in its inception knew that mold and mildew would be a problem.
The fact that those involved joked about it not lasting 10 years is a bit humorous, given how upset we all are about it being torn out 43 years later.
This certainly doesn't have any bearing on why they're not putting something back in its place, as that's more than likely a financial decision. It just confirms all the theories about it being removed due to mold and maintenance.
