Some Walt Disney World hotels make you feel like you’re in old New Orleans as you stroll through bayous and mansions. Some will take you to the grand Victorian seaside hotels of yore. Some take you to the Caribbean for a sun-kissed vacation in a colorful village. But only one of the Walt Disney World hotels is a postmodern abstraction; a geometric icon of architecture and a divisive remnant of 90s design that has somehow been elevated to timelessness.
say what you want The Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin, but these two quirky sister resorts around Crescent Lake near EPCOT are fascinating; Interesting; different. Today we take a look at the origin, the architecture, the legends and the story behind the swan and the dolphin. Whether you love or hate these two unique resorts, hopefully by the end you will appreciate that Walt Disney World could use some more of their audacity today …
The origin
Image: Disney
When the then new CEO Michael Eisner inherited the planning for Walt Disney World in the mid-1980s, he saw 40,000 hectares of land with limitless potential. Walt Disney World had certainly become the “vacation kingdom of the world” Roy Disney had hoped for … but most of all, Disney had changed the rest of central Florida with it. Many of Eisner’s projects in the 1980s – such as Pleasure Island and Disney-MGM Studios – clearly read as attempts by the company to outperform rivals who crowded the mouse like Church Street Station and Universal Studios. This is how the swan and the dolphin came into being.
Believe it or not, when Eisner arrived in 1984, Walt Disney World only had two hotels: the Polynesian Village and the Contemporary, both of which date back to the resort’s opening in 1971! As Disney saw the tremendous potential of owning the central Florida hotel market, construction dragged on. In 1988 Disney opened the Grand Floridian Hotel on Seven Seas Lagoon and introduced a new, less expensive, “moderate” hotel – Disney’s Caribbean Beach.
Image: Disney
But even if Disney could get more guests in central Florida with expanded hotel capacity, there was a lot they needed more than anyone else: the convention-goers. Lots of companies and organizations held conventions and seminars in central Florida … they just didn’t do it in the obsolete ’70s Disney World facilities. Eisner would change that. The “Convention Kingdom” was built around a bespoke boardwalk with evening attractions and would isolate professionals in their own area of Disney World while providing a back entrance to EPCOT for fine dining each evening.
When the New York-based real estate company Tishman got wind that Disney was soliciting outside partners (architect Alan Lapidus and operator Marriott) to build and manage convention centers, they sued. (Tishman claimed that her role in building EPCOT and two Lake Buena Vista hotels was tied to an exclusive, multi-year contract that prevented other outside companies from building hotels on Disney property.) Ultimately Disney and Tishman have reached a mutual agreement, and Tishman has actually built and run two of the Convention Kingdom hotels …
But as the story goes, Michael Eisner was not happy with the hotels Tishman planned and negotiated to attract a world-famous architect who did something bold …
The architect
Michael Graves and the Portland Building. Image courtesy of © 1982 Peter Aaron / Otto Archive
Another “finer” taste of Michael Eisner was the choice of architects. Chappell Ellison of Cartoon Brew wrote a wonderful insight into Eisner’s architectural extravaganza, and you certainly can’t argue with the results: iconic buildings like the Disney Feature Animation Building (AM Stern), Team Disney Orlando office (Arata Isozaki), and Celebration Town Hall (Philip Johnson).
But one of the most controversial architects on Disney’s payroll for that era was Michael Graves. As a longtime architect, artist and designer, Grave’s is an icon of postmodern architecture – a conscious rejection of the clear lines and rigor of the 60s and 70s.
Image: Disney, via D23
Probably the most iconic postmodern works by Grave, emphasizing colorful facades and a playful style, are the Portland building (1982) and the Denver Public Library (1995). For Disney, Graves also designed the iconic Team Disney building in Burbank, California – now officially the Michael D. Eisner Building – with its famous Seven Dwarf Caryatid Columns (above), the Post Office in Celebration, Florida, and Disney’s Hotel New York in Disneyland Paris.
Shaped by whim, symmetry, and geometry, it’s no surprise that Graves’ style (and especially his work for Eisner’s Walt Disney Company) is sometimes referred to as “entertainment architecture.” That made Graves the perfect person to bring two iconic hotels to life in Eisner’s Convention Kingdom …
Architecture
Image: Disney, via WDWInfo
When asked by Disney historian Jim Korkis In 1997, describing how he was selected for the project, Graves said, “Michael didn’t like these tall, all-glass buildings. He called them ‘cool boxes’. He wanted the architecture to tell a story. “Swan & Dolphin do it at first sight.
Why a swan and a dolphin? “I wanted creatures that weren’t part of the existing Disney mythology and hoped that would turn them into Disney icons.” Graves told Korkis. “[The dolphins] were from the work of the Italian sculptor Bernini. inspired [and his Fontana del Tritone]. There is, of course, one major change. Bernini’s dolphins had curved mouths and looked like they were frowning. Michael said that wouldn’t happen on Disney lots, so I curl my mouth up like I’m smiling. “
Image: Marriott
The swan consists of a 12-story rectangular tower with a gently curving roofline on which two 47-foot-high statues of swans (60,000 pounds each) soar. Two nine-story wings protrude toward Crescent Lake, each adorned with a shell.
The entire property is bathed in a warm, sandy pink, with blue-green, stylized, curving waves radiating from the center and along the towers – the postmodern pop that gives Graves’ work its whim. And between the two side towers is the main entrance of the Swan from Crescent Lake, a stylized pavilion with swaying tents – an ode to beach life in the Sunshine State.
Image: Marriott
A dam through the center of Crescent Lake connects the swan with its sister, with rising conch fountains and billowing water. With almost twice as many rooms, the Dolphin’s most distinctive feature is its 257 foot tall central triangular tower – a teal “pyramid” rising from its 12 story rectangular core, with 56 foot tall nautical dolphins on either side. Four 12-story wings branch off from the core. Opposite the swan’s rolling waves, the dolphin is covered in paintings of giant banana leaves that fan out over its towers.
The spectacular Square Feet Tours offer a free one hour audio tour of the Swan & Dolphin, which delves deep into Graves ‘intentions with the shapes and colors of the hotels, and even if modern refreshments have scrubbed the’ 90s colors and textures in favor of more modern, tastier patterns and cleaner lines, there is no denying these both hotels attract attention. And even if the postmodern masterpiece doesn’t recreate a specific “place” like the Grand Californian or the Wilderness Lodge, there is a story that explains the swan and the dolphin … On the next page we will explore and discuss the lore created by Graves You some famous rumors about these two hotels …
