Main Street U.S.A. hub redevelopment at the Magic Kingdom

[lazyboy97o]

I do see what people are saying about the trees when you look at the before and after photos side by side. However, had you not posted those photos, I wouldn't have really noticed a big difference. When I am in the parks, it has never ever bothered me that the trees were removed. Never even gave it a second thought. I suspect that is true for most visitors.

People don't even notice the name of the park. What people notice is a horrid metric.

 

[Scuttle]

There have always been a fairly good number of spots you could “peek” at backstage areas from the trains. It’s varied greatly over the years due to trees and landscaping changing or growing or dying off, plus buildings being painted tends to un-camouflage them. 2000-2004 was probably the most hidden backstage ever was from the trains. Unfortunately after Hurricane Charlie there were a number of trees and larger shrubs in a few places along the tack that had to be removed due to damage. Some larger trees that were damaged that were in strategic places were braced until they could re-root properly, but most of the smaller ones weren’t.

It filled in fairly quickly but there are some spots that never recovered. There have been some other landscaping issues since then too.

That's what I thought. I don't remember that in the 90s or early 2000s. I remember it being full of foliage.

 

[Scuttle]

I guess that makes sense when we were hit with 3 hurricanes within 2 months.

 

[danlb_2000]

I do see what people are saying about the trees when you look at the before and after photos side by side. However, had you not posted those photos, I wouldn't have really noticed a big difference. When I am in the parks, it has never ever bothered me that the trees were removed. Never even gave it a second thought. I suspect that is true for most visitors.

A lot of people didn't have a problem with the hat at DHS, until you showed them the picture of how it looked before it was there.

 

[marni1971]

 

[Jose]

View attachment 80244

Shorter trees would be welcome this time.

 

[marni1971]

Shorter trees would be welcome this time.

Given the projection mapping will be used more in the future It will all depend on sightlines and from where they want you to watch as opposed to where they don't.

 

[steve2wdw]

View attachment 80244

Once upon a time, there was a lush, green, kingdom....

 

[MissingDisney]

View attachment 80244

Oh, how I miss those benches. I remember sitting there eating ice cream with my grandparents. Good times.

 

[Mike S]

View attachment 80244

The Castle itself looks different. Did it have a different paint scheme than what it does now?

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

Given the projection mapping will be used more in the future It will all depend on sightlines and from where they want you to watch as opposed to where they don't.

I did notice in that video rendering of the new hub, any "larger" trees around the outer ring seemed to be positioned in such as way as to keep the projection sight lines (and the new FP+ viewing areas) clear. Since the castle projectors are roughly directly behind the new viewing areas, that sight line has to be kept clear for multiple reasons.

So for the Partners plant boxes, it means it will still be shrubs, if we are lucky a bit larger this time. But other parts of the outer ring could definitely hold full size trees.

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

The Castle itself looks different. Did it have a different paint scheme than what it does now?

Paint scheme was different. It was given a new "warmer" color palette (I think) about 10 years ago. A richer blue for the turrets and hints of brown/pink mixed into the stones and walls.

 

[xdan0920]

I've said it many times before and am happy to say it again: this hub renovation is going to be a vast improvement for the MK. I'm concerned about the lack of trees in the smaller circle, but overall, this new hub is much needed and will feel like a French garden. It'll be lovely.

FRENCH?!?? at the end of Main Street USA?!?!? How dare they.

This seems more accurate

Well done. :claps:

 

[Sage of Time]

The Castle itself looks different. Did it have a different paint scheme than what it does now?

Paint scheme was different. It was given a new "warmer" color palette (I think) about 10 years ago. A richer blue for the turrets and hints of brown/pink mixed into the stones and walls.

Yep. The castle was painted in 2006/7. The original off whites/greys were replaced with light tan colors, creams, and some very light browns. It's most evident if you look at the base of the towers... the colors get lighter as you go up the structure.

The blues also changed colors with patterns added to the blue sections with windows. Those patterns were inspired by Herb Ryman's original concept art for the castle.

 

[ChrisFL]

FRENCH?!?? at the end of Main Street USA?!?!? How dare they.

Hey, if it wasn't for the french, we'd all be speaking eng.....uh....nevermind

 

[Brian]

Yep. The castle was painted in 2006/7. The original off whites/greys were replaced with light tan colors, creams, and some very light browns. It's most evident if you look at the base of the towers... the colors get lighter as you go up the structure.

The blues also changed colors with patterns added to the blue sections with windows. Those patterns were inspired by Herb Ryman's original concept art for the castle.

I may be in the minority, but I really like the new color scheme over the older one.

 

[BEARSHOUSE4]

That is such a great thought! There's a place called Longwood Gardens that plays music to colored fountains. Even if it were to become it's own separate show (it would be hard to watch the amazing fireworks and fountains at the same time) to an array of Disney music.

 

[Sage of Time]

I may be in the minority, but I really like the new color scheme over the older one.

I'm torn. I think the original is "classic" WDW and I have lots of good memories of when the castle looked like that.

That said, the new one is a bit more artistic, if you will. The colors look more realistic and the new patterns are really lovely and honor a bit of WDW conceptual history.

I guess I prefer the newer look. ha.

 

[BEARSHOUSE4]

I LOVE Longwood Gardens! We try to go every Christmas to see the lights. I think WDW could learn a thing or two about landscaping and exterior illumination from them!

 

[George]

I may be in the minority, but I really like the new color scheme over the older one.

I like the new color scheme too. I also loved the look back in the day with the trees, but I can see why the space was created. I think a simple solution is to have groups of 4 helicopters each on one corner of a festively decorated shade tarp hovering over different groups of overheated tourists. The festive decorations would be well done so that they would be considered visually superior to common trees and garden plants. Simple, safe, and effective. Plus, this could pave the way for incredibly dangerous, remote controlled dragon to come back if the helicopters can go say, 5 or 6 days without falling onto a group of guests.