Accually the renovation of TL at WDW started in late 98 and is based on a Jeuels Vern theaming from the original books from the late 1800.
I totally agree the Contemporary needs a facelift. I was looking at pictures of the rooms last night, and they are so out of date, the are cool again! Very retro! It's now sorta like "That 70's Resort". 
Anyway, not sure what should be done other than the obvious paint and building repairs. I guess it would be cost and schedule prohibitive to update it every 5-10 years to keep it in line with contemporary elegance.
In 1971 when the Contempoary first opened the decor and furnishings were of a futuristic styling with lots of laminants and applied accents such as formica, With sucessive renovations especially the 1997 renovation of the north garden that I personally saw being redone, They went with a more traditional decore with the rooms, want they now have lots of wood in the room and with all the furniture such as now they have a faux Amior for the TV and additional storage and instead of carpeting on the wall like they did in the 70s now have regular wall coverings.
