Location, Among Other Things
The more we hear about the “creative campus” that the Walt Disney Co. plans to build on the site of Glendale’s old Grand Central Air Terminal, the more there is to like.
At 125 acres, the site, now an aging industrial park, is too large to really be considered in-fill development, a term reserved mostly for houses and offices that are built on 10- to 15-acre sites in an already developed part of town. But sprawl it is not.
Such in-town development is environmentally sensitive because it is close to existing housing and doesn’t require long commutes or use up ever rarer open space. It’s the kind of location other developers should be encouraged to pursue.
This appears to be a development unlikely to provoke protests from nearby residents, which is almost unheard of in these days of not-in-my-backyard sentiments. One reason is that the project would not require buying out nearby homes.
Another is that, to the people who live in those nearby homes, what will come is likely to look far better than what is there now.
Disney is aiming for a campus-like development, with buildings no taller than four to six stories clustered around quadrangles of grass and trees. The design is modeled after campuses such as Stanford and Caltech.
Especially encouraging are the company’s plans to renovate the old air terminal, with its original 1929 Art Deco control tower, and use it as a visitors center. Preserving the landmark not only honors the site’s colorful past--luminaries who flew in and out of Glendale ranged from Shirley Temple to Charles Lindbergh--but preserves a building that is both historic and architecturally interesting. The Los Angeles area has too much cookie-cutter development to lose a gem like this.
Then of course, there are the additional jobs such a development would bring to the San Fernando Valley area, already home to more than 60,000 studio- and entertainment-related jobs. The campus would house Disney’s Imagineering unit, which designs theme parks, as well as new-media offices, sound stages and production facilities.
Sure, there will be some negative effects to consider. Traffic, for one. The plans call for closing off two streets, including Grand Central Avenue, to make a more unified campus. One question to raise is how the developer intends to deal with increased congestion and what incentives will be offered to encourage the use of alternative transportation.
And true, these plans are all concept at this point, with not a drop of concrete poured. But that’s another plus and another lesson developers can learn from this project: to talk to the community at the earliest possible stage. That helps ensure an already positive project the broadest possible support.
