The Story of the Swan and Dolphin...
I've read about this situation many times, and the most complete version I've read was in "Building a Dream," which is a great book if you are interested in both architecture and Disney, by the way. It differs from CRO-Magnum's version in some respects, plus some of this story just smells fishy to me...
CRO-Magnum said:
Terramark and Sheraton (Holiday Inn pulled out) sued Disney and won. Disney was required to give them properties Disney intended to build their own hotels on. Disney won the right of final approval of the architecture.
That seems an awfully specific settlement...properties Disney intended to build their own hotels on. What "Building a Dream" says is that to get Tishman Hotels to agree to cancel the first contract, Disney agreed to give them a better location than they originally had, so long as Disney got to design to hotels. Note that Tishman Hotels is who actually owns the Swan and the Dolphin, at least according to
them...http://www.tishmanhotels.com/corporate.html.
Eisner hired Michael Graves as the architect and gave him cart blanche.
According to "Building a Dream," Eisner wanted Michael Graves and Robert Venturi to work together. There's a funny quote where, when Graves found out about this idea, he asked Eisner if that wasn't something like asking Spielberg and Lucas to make a film together, and Eisner answered he had done that very thing at Paramount! ("Raiders of the Lost Ark."). When Graves and Venturi met, though, Venturi said he didn't want to work together, he wanted a contest. Graves agreed.
Imagineering tried to float balloons to check heights from within Epcot but Eisner refused. Once built Eisner complained about the visibility of the hotels from the park and ask Imagineering what their solution was - one suggested removing the hotels. Eisner asked them about building a berm which was laughed off since it would require filling the space between Epcot and the hotels with dirt.
According to "Building a Dream," both designers (along with the designer of the original hotel, whoc was also allowed to compete) were given rules about the height of the hotel, but in the end Graves decided to ignore them. Eisner eventually came around to the idea of them being visible from inside Epcot and went with Grave's design--that wasn't something that surprised Eisner after they were built (say what you want about Eisner, he's not a complete idiot).
For whatever reason the Swan chose an interior decor that was hideous. Constrasting colors, busy carpet and wall covering, and nothing matched the Swan theme.
Graves is on record saying he picked out the color schemes for both hotels. He diesgned the light fixtures, the chairs in the restaurants, etc. He designed almost eveything in the hotels.
The hotels are a modular construction and we were told, designed to be removed quickly. I was told years later by a Disney construction manager that a study was done on the feasability and cost of reducing the height of each of the hotels by removing lower stories instead of just knocking them down.
That is absurd. Come on! Designed to be removed quickly? Tearing off the top of the hotel? No way.
Everything I was told then has been corroborated by information I have read since or has been shared with me when I was consulting to Disney.
Well, that may be true but the problem is that people share stories among themselves so it gets into the air. That's why CMs are such unreliable sources for Disney history. You ever heard the one about the Contemporary being designed so that all the rooms could be taken out, trucked to a different location, so they can be redecorated? That story doesn't make a lick of sense, and has be debunked by John Hench, and yet Jim Hill wrote it on his site, and when I e-mailed him about it, he said that Admiral Joe Fowler himself told him that story! Anyway, in "Building a Dream" the story quotes Graves himself, as well as Wing Chao and others who were right there. Probably some of the details as regards the legal wranglings may never be completely transparent.
