Thursday, September 18, 2008

Kraft Shingles

For those who follow / know / care about the Walt Disney World Village / Marketplace / Downtown Disney, I've noted an important development in this area in the past few months. Like many Walt Disney World structures, the Village is getting fully reshingled, a change long overdue. Unfortunately, unlike the many Magic Kingdom buildings getting authentically redone, Disney has opted to go with plain tar shingles for the Village rather than the more costly and pretty wood shingles. As any Village fan will tell you, the Village's beautiful cedar shingles were one of the most distinct and charming things about the place, and the replacement of these with plain commercial grade shingles is a poor substitute indeed. Chalk this one up to just one more element of one of Disney's most discreet yet accomplished bits of urban planning which will soon be forgotten.

I'll discuss the Village in a great deal more detail in the upcoming weeks...

Amazing Quote of the Hiatus #3: "There are moments in everyone's life when even the beautiful simplicity of the video screen seems beyond one's capabilities." - EPCOT Center: Creating the New World of Tomorrow