Shopping venue lands in happiest place on earth
By Daily Bruin Staff
Jan. 17, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 Disneyland Resort An artist’s rendering depicts the new
Downtown Disney, which offers shopping, dining, and
entertainment.
By Barbara McGuire
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The happiest place on earth just got happier, and a little
hipper.
Located between the entrance for Disneyland and the new
California Adventure theme park, Downtown Disney is one of the
latest additions to the expanding resort. The new shopping and
dining strip, which could be compared to Universal CityWalk, opened
Jan. 12.
Containing well-known restaurants and entertainment venues
directed towards the 25-to-55-year-old demographic, such as the
House of Blues and ESPN Zone, Downtown Disney is the only ungated
and free portion of the Disneyland empire.
“We created Downtown Disney as part of our overall resort
expansion, and the design behind it was to have a place where
tourists or conventioneers or even locals would have a place to go
for kind of the ultimate dining and entertainment,” said Mike
Barry, Senior Vice President of Downtown Disney.
“And then we also layered it with what we thought were
terrific shopping opportunities,” he continued.
Making it the ultimate dining and entertainment location
wasn’t the only thing that was important to the creators of
Downtown Disney. According to Barry, who has been involved with the
project since day one, comfort was also something that was very
important to them.
“That was the most important thing. How do we create a
unique space people feel comfortable in and want to be in?”
he said. “Coincidentally to that, we were also very involved
in kind of a jigsaw puzzle and how do we fit in these 300,000
square feet between hotels and the theme park.”
Amazingly enough, with its magical powers, Disney managed to
squeeze the new venue in. However, this was no easy feat. Disney
was required to lower West Street in its entirety, becoming
Disneyland Drive.
Barry mentioned that lowering West Street wasn’t just an
architectural move to fit in Downtown Disney. Other motivations
behind it were, for example, so that people driving or walking
along the outer street would be able to see the
“weenies” of the strip.
“If you can see this landmark that is both monumental
enough that you take note of it, and if it helps to find some
perspective, it also does something else to our human
psyche,” Barry said of weenies. “It says, “˜Oh,
what is that wonderful thing I see? I want to go see
it.'”
“So, weenies are used to inform the mind’s eye quite
literally, that here’s something you want to see,” he
continued.
Downtown Disney is full of such eye-catching architectural
elements. Not only are no two restaurants or boutiques anywhere
near similar to one another, but there are varied themes going into
each building. Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen was designed in
accordance with the restaurant’s origin in New Orleans, while
Y Arriba! Y Arriba!, on the other hand, has a Latin-themed
nightclub flare to it.
Finding such unique participants, like Rainforest Café and
Sephora, a boutique from Paris, was another goal of the creative
minds behind Downtown Disney.
“It’s not like anything anyone else has done, not
even ourselves,” said Barry. “By populating it with
wonderful operating participants that you don’t see normally
““ other than a few of them, they really aren’t
L.A.-area things ““ it was this wonderful marriage of
restaurants and entertainment.”
The obscurity of many of the restaurants and shops will probably
be the initial attraction for most visitors, but it is the great
food and live entertainment that will keep them coming. Most
restaurants have allotted space for a live band or other
entertainment to keep guests amused. For example, Y Arriba! Y
Arriba! will have an in-house orchestra and dancers.
“People like to be where activities are going on, and
there aren’t very many places that go out of their way to try
to create this principle of wonderful congregation space,”
Barry said.
“I think it’s just a superb outing for the folks at
UCLA,” he continued. “There’s the beach and
Westwood, and you can go to Melrose, and I think this just offers
one more option.”
