News New Polynesian Resort DVC villas building to open 2024

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
And again....the hotel is IN FRENCH POLYNESIA so there is no need to evoke the setting while you are already there ... this resort is supposed to create the setting and ambience of Polynesia... I am sure there is a convenience store or gas station in Papeete Bay, but that does not mean a gas station and convenience store are placemaking additions that would transport you to the South Pacific...lol
What you don’t realize is that you’re arguing for homogenization. If design doesn’t need to be site specific then you don’t have any actual defining concept of place to later recall as part of themed design.
 

yaksplat

Well-Known Member
I do indeed love Americanized Idealized Tiki Culture....
not even kidding... There is a book out called Polynesiacs... It is about people creating Tiki escapism in their homes.
We are actually in the book....
I guess my FB group Tikibar Automation is in there too. I've been meaning to buy a copy.
 

Bocabear

Well-Known Member
What you don’t realize is that you’re arguing for homogenization. If design doesn’t need to be site specific then you don’t have any actual defining concept of place to later recall as part of themed design.
I am arguing for the structures within the "Polynesian Village Resort" to actually be themed and designed to evoke the thematic location...in a way that feels grounded in the original design of the resort and furthers the thematic integrity....
 

peter11435

Well-Known Member
I am arguing for the structures within the "Polynesian Village Resort" to actually be themed and designed to evoke the thematic location...in a way that feels grounded in the original design of the resort and furthers the thematic integrity....
It looks very grounded in the original design of the resort…
EC19BBC6-E285-4229-B9BF-82D8591AE885.jpeg
 
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peter11435

Well-Known Member
That was "an original design for the Resort" not THE original as-built design for the resort.... So we have what we have.....and the new building would not look great next to this "Waikiki 1968" version either...
The new building shares a lot of similarities with the original design in that concept art. And that building was meant to be surrounded by nearly the same out buildings we have today.
 

yensidtlaw1969

Well-Known Member
I feel like I agree that the new tower is not particularly harmonious with what came before, even if they're pulling influence from an early concept for Disney's Polynesian. That tower design may have been a valid approach on its own, but it does feel more generic and less evocative than what was actually built, and this new tower feels out of place alongside the Great Ceremonial House and other existing buildings.

I'm looking forward to the MK view from the rooftop restaurant, and I hope the interior will be more interesting than the exterior. But based on the art and the construction this does so far seem to stick out like a sore thumb.
 

James Alucobond

Well-Known Member
To me, the two big problems are that a) this looks unbalanced from some lagoon views and b) it doesn’t allow for sufficient breathing room between the Polynesian and Grand, with potential significant impacts to the wedding pavilion.

That said, I do think the Polynesian will benefit from the additional pool and dining capacity, and from within the resort itself, I don’t totally hate the progression from bungalows to longhouses to low tower since the reveal is more gradual when you actually walk through the space. The degree to which it will ultimately bother me will probably depend in part on how well it is finished and how consistent the dressing of the communal spaces is with the rest of the resort. Honestly, if that is done well, the revised monorail station and entrance to the GCH will rank higher on my annoyance list since elements of that are blatantly cheap.
 

JenniferS

When you're the leader, you don't have to follow.
I appreciate your sharing these pictures, but this looks like a comfortable place I’d be okay staying at for a series of business meetings in Huntsville for a few days, not for a deluxe, $1,000+/night at a signature resort.
Huntsville, Ontario?
 

RandySavage

Well-Known Member
Before Iger was made CEO, the MK Resort Area - Bay Lake & Seven Seas Lagoon - was the most sublime man-made area yet built in the Post-War era, anywhere on the planet. If anyone knows of anything that compares, I'd be interesting in learning about it.

Actually-well-themed, beautiful resorts, such as below (a Venetian, thankfully, dropping the midrise from the 1970s plans, just as the Polynesian wisely did) were on the drawing table before Iger, his captains and their strategy of generic-modern, "high-ROI" mid-rises plopped all over WDW.
WDW Venetian z 1990s Grande Venezia Resort (1)Bob Holland3.jpg


Iger's regime brought all the clutter and poorly-integrated DVCs (BLT, GrandFlo, bungalows, cabins, this Poly modern midrise thing). Then there's the Tron box, the Polynesian interior and landscape downgrades... [sigh] today the MK Resort Area is a shadow of its apex around 1999. It's a travesty that someone like Iger - full of avarice, questionable architectural taste and zero Vision - was to be this Modern Wonder's failed steward.
 

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