Sunday, October 14, 2007

Daily Figment 83 - Epcot Center History Canada

Looking at the Canada Pavilion, there are two specific Canadian icons that were borrowed by the Imagineers for the area: Chateau Laurier and Butchart Gardens.

The Canada Pavilion

The Canada Pavilion


Chateau Laurier

Butchart Gardens

The Gardens of the Canada Showcase at Epcot Center offer a variety of floral expres­sions. Patterned after the famous Butchart Gardens in British Colum­bia, Disney's Victoria Gardens try to capture the many moods to be found in that unique garden. A former quarry ravaged by years of mining, Butchart Gardens represents ]enny Butchart's efforts to reclaim and beautify the destruction resulting from her husband's thriving enter­prise. Like the garden which pro­vided its inspiration, the Victoria Gardens are home to a broad variety of plants.

The man-made Canadian moun­tain which looms in the distance lends a bit of rugged majesty to the well-groomed landscape it rises above. Evergreens carefully selected for their size and texture contribute to the illusion of grandness. Larger and coarser textured plants at the base give way to smaller, fine tex­tured plants near the summit. Patches of "wildflowers" and natural groupings of trees and shrubs spe­cially selected to look like species of the northern climes soften the gen­tle rush of a stream.

Flowers in bright pure sweeps of color command the center of attention while stately cedars, maples, and birches are content to form a distant wall of subtle greenery. Everywhere one looks there is interplay between the flowers and their land¬scape, a harmony achieved through an abundant variety of plant materials, textures and shadings of hue.

--P. 33, Gardens of the Walt Disney World Resort

3 comments:

Cory Gross said...

More generally, the building in the Canada pavillion is drawing from the whole "Canadian Chateau", style of which the Chateau Laurier is a part. The style was frequently used for the iconic "Grand Railway Hotels" that dot the transcontinental railway lines.

The Laurier in Ottawa is the main example, but it includes the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec, the Bessborough in Saskatoon, the Empress in Victoria, the Confederation Building in Ottawa, and to a slightly lesser extent, the Banff Springs Hotel.

British-style formal gardens, like Butchart Gardens (which is gorgeous!) also dot the countryside, and it's nice that EPCOT managed to pull two symbols of Canada that are truly countrywide.

Sorry, just thought I would throw in a detail about my home and native land! Excellent blog by the way... I'll have to add it to my list of daily reads!

Unknown said...

Thanks!

I appreciate the comments and the additional information.

I am always on the lookout for more details about the parks and their architectural significance. I am going to hunt for info on those other hotels right now...

Cory Gross said...

No problem!

Unfortunately, WDW isn't high on my list of Disney resorts to go to (if they still had a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride it would be different!), but if I ever did, I would particularly want to see how Canada was represented. I guess it's a matter of national pride ^_^

If you want to see some video on some of these hotels, I have some on my Video.ca file at http://www.video.ca/user.php?name=CoryTheRaven