OBIT: Disney Landscape Artist Morgan 'Bill' Evans, 92
SANTA MONICA, CA (Orange County Register) -- Morgan "Bill" Evans, the landscape architect who planted a group of orange trees upside down so the gnarled roots would look like exotic jungle branches on Disneyland's Jungle Cruise ride, died Saturday in his native Santa Monica. He was 92. If you love the topiary, or animal-shaped plants, around It's a Small World, or the miniature plants dotting Storybook Land, or the luscious growth that renders the park's utility buildings invisible, you have Evans to thank. A man with vision and a deep affection for plants, his first goal in designing theme-park landscaping was guest comfort such as shade and shelter. The next priority was obliterating visual intrusions such as utility buildings, followed by telling a story through landscaping, as with the mixed broadleaf forest of Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River banks. "I certainly feel that trees are living, breathing individuals," Evans once said. "They're alive and respond to the elements. A building doesn't yield to the breeze. I can see the life in the trees by the way they move." Before being hired by Walt Disney in 1951, Evans and his now-deceased brother, Jack, helped run the popular Evans & Reeves Nursery in West Los An-geles, which brought the miles of South African flowering coral trees that grace San Vicente Boulevard. They also landscaped Disney's Holmby Hills home. Bill Evans went on to become director of landscape design at Walt Disney Imagineering. Though he retired in 1975, he was consulting with Disney landscape architects until his death. He headed landscape design for the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. He also consulted on landscaping for Disney parks in Tokyo, France and Hong Kong. He wrote the book "Disneyland: World of Flowers," devoted to the park's flora, and was a member of Sunset magazine's garden advisory board for 25 years. In 1992, he was named a Disney Legend and in 1996 received a tribute award from the Landscape Ar-chitecture Foundation.
SANTA MONICA, CA (Orange County Register) -- Morgan "Bill" Evans, the landscape architect who planted a group of orange trees upside down so the gnarled roots would look like exotic jungle branches on Disneyland's Jungle Cruise ride, died Saturday in his native Santa Monica. He was 92. If you love the topiary, or animal-shaped plants, around It's a Small World, or the miniature plants dotting Storybook Land, or the luscious growth that renders the park's utility buildings invisible, you have Evans to thank. A man with vision and a deep affection for plants, his first goal in designing theme-park landscaping was guest comfort such as shade and shelter. The next priority was obliterating visual intrusions such as utility buildings, followed by telling a story through landscaping, as with the mixed broadleaf forest of Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River banks. "I certainly feel that trees are living, breathing individuals," Evans once said. "They're alive and respond to the elements. A building doesn't yield to the breeze. I can see the life in the trees by the way they move." Before being hired by Walt Disney in 1951, Evans and his now-deceased brother, Jack, helped run the popular Evans & Reeves Nursery in West Los An-geles, which brought the miles of South African flowering coral trees that grace San Vicente Boulevard. They also landscaped Disney's Holmby Hills home. Bill Evans went on to become director of landscape design at Walt Disney Imagineering. Though he retired in 1975, he was consulting with Disney landscape architects until his death. He headed landscape design for the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. He also consulted on landscaping for Disney parks in Tokyo, France and Hong Kong. He wrote the book "Disneyland: World of Flowers," devoted to the park's flora, and was a member of Sunset magazine's garden advisory board for 25 years. In 1992, he was named a Disney Legend and in 1996 received a tribute award from the Landscape Ar-chitecture Foundation.
