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Building History

Entertainment executive Walter Elias Disney (1901-1966) commissioned the firm of Pereira And Luckman to create a master plan for his early conception of Disneyland in 1952-1953. BY early 1953, Luckman expressed concern over the size and location of the Disney's envisioned park. Seeking further assistance on the location of Disneyland, Disney, at the recommendation of Charles Luckman, consulted with the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park, CA. According to Harrison Price of SRI: "'Walt was at a cocktail party with Charles Luckman, the architect, and Luckman knew me....Walt had been trying to get help from Luckman and [William] Pereira and [Welton] Becket; he had three buddies who were big-time architects in town. He was having a hard time articulating his idea in architectural terms so he could have a dialogue with guys like that. Luckman told him, 'Why don't you go to Stanford Research? They did a good job for us in Hawaii when we were building a new kind of stadium.' That's how I got the lead.'" Disney first met with Price and SRI on 06/03/1953. Work by SRI continued for four months and created two documents: the initial "Proposal for Research for Disneyland," and the final "Analysis of Location Factors for Disneyland," the latter document dated 08/28/1953. For their services, SRI was paid $32,000. By 09/1953, Disney realized that he would require 160 acres and on 09/11/1953, he obtained the approval of Walt Disney Productions to fund the acquisition. Construction on Disneyland's first phase occurred from 07/1954 to 07/1955. (See Michael Barrier, The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney, [Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007], p. 239.)

PCAD id: 17510