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

[lazyboy97o]

I see both sides of things. Guests want to see the castle for the shows and fireworks. There are A LOT of guests in the Magic Kingdom. More space is needed for their viewing pleasure. However, Trees make the park look and feel better (like a park and not just concrete). Lets hope they plant trees on the outskirts of the new hub. We can hope and dream that there is a compromise of viewing and beauty/comfort. The Water features and landscaping will be an improvement to the current construction mess that is there now. That is a fact.

The whole reason people want to be sitting in the Hub is because too much entertainment is designed around the Hub. Removing that singular focus would reduce the demand.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

The whole reason people want to be sitting in the Hub is because too much entertainment is designed around the Hub. Removing that singular focus would reduce the demand.

Yes, there used to be a big theatre in Tomorrowland. And shows in Adventureland and Frontierland. And an EPCOT Center, a park so phenomenal that it once managed to do what DisneySea does: relieve the castle park by drawing almost as many visitors - but to a park designed to cope with those numbers rather than the more intrinsically infrastructurally limited castle park design.

As ever, the replacement of the forest and waters of the hub for the flat lawn may be a necessity, but it is only a necessity within a small frame of solutions.

 

[SnarkyMonkey]

As ever, the replacement of the forest and waters of the hub for the flat lawn may be a necessity, but it is only a necessity within a small frame of solutions.

Nothing I have seen has suggested that the hub is becoming a flat lawn.

 

[LAKid53]

I see both sides of things. Guests want to see the castle for the shows and fireworks. There are A LOT of guests in the Magic Kingdom. More space is needed for their viewing pleasure. However, Trees make the park look and feel better (like a park and not just concrete). Lets hope they plant trees on the outskirts of the new hub. We can hope and dream that there is a compromise of viewing and beauty/comfort. The Water features and landscaping will be an improvement to the current construction mess that is there now. That is a fact.

Yes, it's called pruning the vegetation. Trees would reduce the "concrete only" feel of the Hub. And provide much needed shade in the summer months. And the fireworks would certainly be visible as long as an appropriate species of tree is planted, like dogwoods (beautiful when the trees blossom in the spring), and they are properly pruned.

 

[Bryansworld]

Yes, it's called pruning the vegetation. Trees would reduce the "concrete only" feel of the Hub. And provide much needed shade in the summer months. And the fireworks would certainly be visible as long as an appropriate species of tree is planted, like dogwoods (beautiful when the trees blossom in the spring), and they are properly pruned.

I agree 100%

 

[Goofyernmost]

Yes, it's called pruning the vegetation. Trees would reduce the "concrete only" feel of the Hub. And provide much needed shade in the summer months. And the fireworks would certainly be visible as long as an appropriate species of tree is planted, like dogwoods (beautiful when the trees blossom in the spring), and they are properly pruned.

I don't think that the problem is seeing the fireworks so much as it is the Castle projection show. That is very difficult to see through a tree. It has become a big thing at WDW. And visibility is from half way up MSUSA to the Castle.

 

[ford91exploder]

Nothing I have seen has suggested that the hub is becoming a flat lawn.

No a wasteland of HOT concrete would be more like it, A flat lawn would be NICE.

 

[SnarkyMonkey]

No a wasteland of HOT concrete would be more like it, A flat lawn would be NICE.

Some people complain there will be too much grass. Other people complain there will be too much concrete. Disney can't win for trying.

 

[ford91exploder]

Some people complain there will be too much grass. Other people complain there will be too much concrete. Disney can't win for trying.

They could have left well enough alone and SPREAD the entertainment across the park like it used to be for almost 40 years, But no marketing decided to use the castle as a projection screen and cut the shows elsewhere. Thereby necessitating the installation of a concrete esplanade, For this you CANNOT have gardens or they will be trampled.

So yeah too much concrete so that people can see a 15 minute show, but roast for 12 hours a day in the florida summer sun.

 

[BoarderPhreak]

Love those pics.

If Disney remembers the saying "Leave things better than you found them", all will be well.

Thank you! Me too. I only hope that Disney restores some of the green, landscaped feel of the hub after all the concrete goes in. Granted, perhaps much of it will be in planters. I also hope that they put benches around them... But I think we all know how that'll pan out.

If there's anything I'll really miss about the old hub, this is it. I loved that little area down by the water.

Definitely! I love the landscaping as it was. It made the park - a park! Not a concrete cattle ranch. One of my favorite spots were the Nessy bushes. I wonder if Mickey and Minnie will still be around? I'm thinking they're already gone - for good.



More greenery for posterity...

 

[Figment2005]

No a wasteland of HOT concrete would be more like it, A flat lawn would be NICE.

It isn't going to be a wasteland of hot concrete though.

 

[Horizons1]

Trees don't bring in enough revenue. The hub needs more frozen. That's what the kids want.

 

[ford91exploder]

It isn't going to be a wasteland of hot concrete though.

Really, It's a bunch of concentric hardscape rings with a few planters, That fits most definitions of concrete wasteland. And WITHOUT trees the hardscape most of the summer will be hot enough to fry an egg,

As a side benefit that hardscape will RETAIN the heat so it will be hot at night as well.

 

[Communicore]

Why not just pave the moat over and get it over with, you know in the same manner that the Communicore ponds got paved over.

 

[Figment2005]

Really, It's a bunch of concentric hardscape rings with a few planters, That fits most definitions of concrete wasteland. And WITHOUT trees the hardscape most of the summer will be hot enough to fry an egg,

As a side benefit that hardscape will RETAIN the heat so it will be hot at night as well.

But there are going to be trees. A wasteland, by definition, is void of all life. The hub will be nothing like a wasteland.

 

[Goofywilliam]

Really, It's a bunch of concentric hardscape rings with a few planters, That fits most definitions of concrete wasteland. And WITHOUT trees the hardscape most of the summer will be hot enough to fry an egg,

As a side benefit that hardscape will RETAIN the heat so it will be hot at night as well.

I'm sure the horticulture team will do all that they can (or allowed) to make the hub feel more luscious and garden like.

 

[BoarderPhreak]

Planters are not the same as actual landscaping. For one thing... Guess what planters are made of? Oh, right - concrete.

 

[ford91exploder]

Why not just pave the moat over and get it over with, you know in the same manner that the Communicore ponds got paved over.

Just pave it all, remove all the trees and plants after all where will people put their strollers and it will be LOTS cheaper to run.

 

[ford91exploder]

I'm sure the horticulture team will do all that they can (or allowed) to make the hub feel more luscious and garden like.

I am sure the horticulture team is horrified at what happened to the Hub, I fear they will not be allowed to do much, I expect the so called 'grassy' areas will be either astroturf or that rubbery mat material we now see in the place of mulch around trees at WDW.

 

[Communicore]

I am sure the horticulture team is horrified at what happened to the Hub, I fear they will not be allowed to do much, I expect the so called 'grassy' areas will be either astroturf or that rubbery mat material we now see in the place of mulch around trees at WDW.

Yea, they should use the artificial surfaces.