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

[WDWtraveler]

Photo update as of Saturday, Jan 31. Several "large" trees have been planted in the west side of the hub redevelopment area recently. This is the side Crystal Palace is located.

As of late this week, the entire moat around the central hub, to include under Cinderella Castle, was drained. You could see the concrete bottom in every location. The sand coffer dams have been removed, revealing new concrete moat channels in the redevelopment area.

The hardscaping for the hub redevelopment area is taking shape, and in some places, the pavement is in place.

Finally, in the last photo, one area already has the metal railing installed.

Wow, a new record, for me at least! 39 "likes" and counting for a single post, as of 1 Feb. Thank you all for your interest.

 

[steve2wdw]

Keep the trees coming!

 

[Crazydisneyfanluke]

Looks like the area in front of Casey's will be the first section to open, with the west side opening with in a week later.

 

[roj2323]

Looks like the area in front of Casey's will be the first section to open, with the west side opening with in a week later.

I think that's a bit optimistic.

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

Treeeeeeeeees!!!!! Greenery!!! Life!!!

Even surrounded by construction, those new trees look oh so beautiful.

 

[Jose]

The concrete is red, isn't it?

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

The concrete is red, isn't it?

No. It will be a light brown to differentiate the new Hub/gardens area from Main Street.

 

[Next Big Thing]

Looks like the area in front of Casey's will be the first section to open, with the west side opening with in a week later.

The Casey's side IS the West side.

 

[WDWtraveler]

Additional photo update as of Saturday, Jan 31. As part of the hub redevelopment, the restrooms between The Plaza Restaurant and Tomorrowland Terrace Restaurant have been closed for some time, as concrete work inside and outside has been ongoing. In these photos, it appears some sort of planter may be installed, similar (although smaller) to the area in front of the First Aid Station / Baby Care Center near the Crystal Palace. Appears tall enough to have seating on the top of the planter.

These underground utilities will be hidden behind the structure of the concrete form.

 

[Jose]

No. It will be a light brown to differentiate the new Hub/gardens area from Main Street.

thanks, but, will main street get the new concrete?

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

thanks, but, will main street get the new concrete?

No, not that I am aware. But I don't have any "inside" knowledge. Someone else more in the know should be able to confirm.

 

[cjk0318]

thanks, but, will main street get the new concrete?

No, only the new areas.

 

[ChrisFL]

I assume it is because they intend to have people standing on those "grass" areas for fireworks and/or parade viewing. There is no breed of grass that will stand up to that kind of traffic and it will look MUCH better than just concrete.

Take notice of how professional stadiums keep people off the grass at all times except for games. There's a picture of a sign next to the field in Arizona for the Super Bowl that says "grass grows by inches and is killed by feet."

When I've seen artificial grass used out in Vegas, it has looked surprisingly real. If it wasn't ridiculously expensive, I'd change my Florida lawn over to it without even blinking.

The astroturf or whatever similar substance in front of the ampitheater at Universal is really nice...looks brand new even though its been there for several years

 

[tirian]

No. It will be a light brown to differentiate the new Hub/gardens area from Main Street.

The hub technically wasn't part of Main Street theming anyway. It was always supposed to be a park-like, neutral link to the various lands. However, the original hub fulfilled this purpose much better than the one from 2003 until now.

 

[steve2wdw]

Additional photo update as of Saturday, Jan 31. As part of the hub redevelopment, the restrooms between The Plaza Restaurant and Tomorrowland Terrace Restaurant have been closed for some time, as concrete work inside and outside has been ongoing. In these photos, it appears some sort of planter may be installed, similar (although smaller) to the area in front of the First Aid Station / Baby Care Center near the Crystal Palace. Appears tall enough to have seating on the top of the planter.

View attachment 80921

These underground utilities will be hidden behind the structure of the concrete form.

View attachment 80922

That planter looks big enough for a TREE....I can dream can't I? Seriously, a large tree in that planter would help to hide the "bad show" of the back side of Main Street. Seeing that some new trees have been planted on the west side of the hub refurb, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some new vertical greenery in this area.

 

[steve2wdw]

When this project was first announced, I was very skeptical about the final results, but there is one aspect that I'm already happy about....The Crystal Palace has always been very distant, visually, from the hub. Enough progress has been made, that it now appears the new walkways, and faux bridge, actually appear to pull the CP into the hub. At DL, I've always noted how I liked that the Plaza Inn and Plaza Pavilion (Jolly Holiday Bakery), cozy up to the hub. I've often felt that the expanse of the MK's hub, while beautiful (especially when there were many more trees), created a far different "feel" as opposed to DL. The original design worked best when Swan Boats plied tree lined waterways. Without the kinetics of the SB's, in addition to the de-forestation, the hub became an isolated island. It's my hope that the effect I see on the CP, does the same to the rest of the surrounding area, visually pulling the bulk of Main Street towards the center of the park.

 

[SnarkyMonkey]

When this project was first announced, I was very skeptical about the final results, but there is one aspect that I'm already happy about....The Crystal Palace has always been very distant, visually, from the hub. Enough progress has been made, that it now appears the new walkways, and faux bridge, actually appear to pull the CP into the hub. At DL, I've always noted how I liked that the Plaza Inn and Plaza Pavilion (Jolly Holiday Bakery), cozy up to the hub. I've often felt that the expanse of the MK's hub, while beautiful (especially when there were many more trees), created a far different "feel" as opposed to DL. The original design worked best when Swan Boats plied tree lined waterways. Without the kinetics of the SB's, in addition to the de-forestation, the hub became an isolated island. It's my hope that the effect I see on the CP, does the same to the rest of the surrounding area, visually pulling the bulk of Main Street towards the center of the park.

Yes! You are so right about CP. I have thought that too. It's so beautiful but seems completely unshowcased...like it's just pushed aside or something...unless you find yourself on the path to the bathroom.

 

[Brian]

Additional photo update as of Saturday, Jan 31. As part of the hub redevelopment, the restrooms between The Plaza Restaurant and Tomorrowland Terrace Restaurant have been closed for some time, as concrete work inside and outside has been ongoing. In these photos, it appears some sort of planter may be installed, similar (although smaller) to the area in front of the First Aid Station / Baby Care Center near the Crystal Palace. Appears tall enough to have seating on the top of the planter.

View attachment 80921

These underground utilities will be hidden behind the structure of the concrete form.

View attachment 80922

Thanks for the updates!

 

[The Visionary Soul]

A couple notes here...

The design intent is to remove almost everything that is "liberty green" in color from the Main Entrance through Main Street all the way to the Hub. The budget isn't there to do everything they want, like the Monorail station rehab, but you'll see it in a lot more places than just the Hub.

That brownish color with brass railings is the replacement. Essentially, they are taking the logic of replacing the old green trash cans with the current brown ones and applying it to everything else they can.

The larger trees will be on the outer rings of the Hub if all goes according to plan. They can't be in the center of the Hub due to the castle projections.

The new design of the hardscape still didn't create enclaves for benches, so I don't know if we will even see new benches to replace all the ones that have been removed. If we do, they certainly won't be in the outer pathway around the Hub.

The red concrete will be replaced in the Hub with the new brownish stuff everywhere that is currently red. It's also supposed to be replaced on Main Street eventually, but not in the current project. Heck, they keep replacing the stuff on Main Street with different mixes of colors and smoothness, so it's hard to tell what they will do there, even with a budget in the future. For now though, they are sticking with what they have.

Those new lights can do more than you think they can. I'm very excited for the new lighting design in the Hub, provided they actually program the lights to utilize everything they can do. It would so be like Disney to install expensive programmable lights and not use them. (Ahem, TTA Peoplemover!)

That's all for now.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

The red concrete will be replaced in the Hub with the new brownish stuff everywhere that is currently red. It's also supposed to be replaced on Main Street eventually, but not in the current project.

Sounds like they want to make it more like DLP and HKDL. I wonder if they also want to replace the grey paved street with a brick pattern too?