Grand Design : Euro Disney Is, Well, California

No matter how they tried, the planners at PBR Inc. couldn’t properly convey their home-grown ideas for the Euro Disney Resort to a group of visiting French urban designers.

So the Irvine development consulting firm arranged a quick tour of some of Southern California’s newest communities--the ultra-planned Tustin Ranch and Rancho Santa Margarita in southern Orange County. Despite a reputation for Gallic purism, the French visitors marveled at the tranquil neighborhoods densely filled with rows of beige stucco houses.

“I think they were impressed by the scale. They build more vertically than horizontally,” said Don Smith, senior vice president of the firm.

PBR is one of several Southern California companies chosen by the Walt Disney Co. to contribute to its new theme park and resort complex opening Sunday on 5,000 acres of farmland 20 miles east of Paris. Each company worked side-by-side with the French and Disney officials on a project that blended the Golden State’s quirkiness with European formality.

The Southern California influence will be evident throughout the $4.4-billion project. PBR and Sasaki Associates, a Santa Ana landscape design firm, worked together to create a grand design for the complex surrounding Disney’s fourth theme park that would include many of the elements of a planned community in the Southland--minus the smog, 7-Eleven stores and swaying palms.

A Costa Mesa chain of nostalgic diners was invited to instruct the French employees of Annette’s, a 1950s-style cafe at the resort, on how to operate at a quick pace.

All of the companies worked under the auspices of Disney’s Imagineering division in Glendale, but the “imagineers” have declined to discuss their use of subcontractors. Division officials point out that they had overall responsibility for the project; they, therefore, take the credit. Imagineering designed the Euro Disneyland theme park, borrowing heavily from the blueprint of the original Disneyland in Anaheim.

For PBR, the Euro Disneyland theme park is but a single part of what the Southland designers hope will become a European version of the planned community, with golf courses, hotels, shops and a high-rise office district. A working Disney movie studio/attraction is expected to debut in 1995.

French government planners visited PBR’s offices several times as the site designs unfolded. Most of the time, mutual understanding came easily. But trouble arose one day in explaining how to grade the site so that Euro Disneyland would rise majestically in the distance. The secret was that it would be built on a mound of dirt carved from creation of the lakes and golf course. That led to the impromptu tour to show how subtle elevation differences affect a development.

For some details of the project, “You had to show them. No words could explain it,” Smith said.

The attention to detail showed up in other ways as well. Planners made sure, for instance, that the castle spires were visible from the overpass of the highway into the resort. “I want the kids jumping up and down in the back seat” when the castle comes into view, Smith said.

PBR President William R. Phillips said he believes Disney chose PBR because it was one of the few firms that could handle a planning assignment one-fifth the size of Paris. The firm’s previous master planning tasks have included the communities of Rancho Santa Margarita, Coto de Casa and the residential villages of Irvine, such as Woodbridge and Turtle Rock. All told, PBR had about 85 staff members working on Euro Disney.

Landscape designer Sasaki Associates joined PBR and Disney in devising a street-lighting and tree-planting scheme to dress up the main boulevards running through the French resort. Principal Roger McErlane praised Disney officials as being receptive to ideas. “They are willing to take great leaps (of faith) and change direction,” he said.

The Euro Disney experience led to additional contracts for Sasaki on the Disney MGM Studio theme park in Florida and the proposed renovation of Tomorrowland at Disneyland in Anaheim.

When it came to creating a swinging, poodle-skirt-style diner at the park, Disney bought in the Ruby Restaurant Group of Costa Mesa--operator of 11 Ruby’s Diners.

European restaurants typically assign a single waiter to 10 tables during a shift, half as many as the average American restaurant. And while American waiters learn to hustle because they are dependent on tip income, most European waiters are paid a flat salary, explained Ruby President Doug Cavanaugh.

To show the new Annette’s servers how to pick up the pace, Disney commissioned Ruby’s to send a crew of 10 managers and their best crew members to France to oversee the restaurant’s shakedown.

In addition, Cavanaugh has visited the park to consult on restaurant operations and the decor, which will include vintage American cars parked out front, miniature jukeboxes on the tables, chrome napkin holders and a 20-foot statue of restaurant namesake and ex-Mouseketeer Annette Funicello.

In overseeing the project, Walt Disney Imagineering had about 1,000 of its 2,500 workers involved in tasks from making fake rocks to teaching robots to sword fight for an added dose of realism on the “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride.

“Every month, we’ll have to make sure the swords are sharpened again,” said Imagineering President Martin A. Sklar.

Many of the Glendale-based workers lived for months near the construction site, contending with such cultural differences as the French penchant for three-hour lunches. Most of the California contingent opted for a truck that came by with ham sandwiches everyday, said Tony Baxter, an Imagineering senior vice president.