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Disney's Grand Californian Hotel
Anaheim, Calif.
Urban Design Group

Arts and crafts style adorns luxurious accommodations


© Disney

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above.

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The Grand Californian Hotel, the first hotel to be located within the new Disney California Adventure Theme Park, is a luxurious 750-room resort hotel designed after the Arts and Crafts Movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This style of architecture was employed by noted architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, Northern California’s Bernard Maybeck, and the Greene brothers, who created Pasadena’s famous Gamble House. The hotel is the largest structure ever built in this style, which is noted for its straight-line handcrafted simplicity, use of natural stained wood and stone, and art nouveau, stained-glass panels. A spectacular six-story-high atrium-lobby serves as a rustic yet elegant grand entry with a massive stone fireplace and sitting areas, creating the cozy feeling of a national park lodge. The hotel makes a completely integrated statement of this design motif through its architecture, furnishings, the landscape, the art, and decorative arts.

The presidential suite, inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, has a perfect panorama of Disney’s California Adventure from the comfort of a cozy fireside couch. Inside, you can hear a pin drop, but open the sliding glass door and you hear the shrill screams of park guests dropping down Grizzly River Run, an exhilarating raft ride. The hotel offers a convention center, health club, three swimming pools, and a variety of restaurants for fine dining.

Formal name of building:
Disney's Grand Californian Hotel

Location:
Anaheim, Calif.

Owner:
Walt Disney Imagineering

Architect's firm:
Urban Design Group, Inc.
1621 18th Street, Suite 200
Denver, Colorado 80202
Tel: 303.292.3388
Fax: 303.292.3113
www.urbandesigngroup.com

 

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