Sam Gennawey
Sam Gennawey is an urban planner who has collaborated with communities throughout California over the course of more than 100 projects to create a great, big, beautiful tomorrow. Sam is a member of the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Regional Planning History Group, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving municipal, county, and private sector planning documents from throughout Los Angeles County. Sam is the author of Walt and the Promise of Progress City which you can find on Amazon.
BECOMING LA - LA COUNTY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
For those familiar with Charles Phoenix, I believe one of his great contributions to humanity was linking downtown Los Angeles to Disneyland. Whatever exists behind the berm also exists outside the...
Recently, as I was sorting through some files, I came across a 1966 operator’s manual for the Disneyland-Alweg Monorail System and thought I would share some of the highlights.
As was the custom with Disneyland University documents, the first section...
Once upon a time the planners at Walt Disney World really did want to follow Walt’s vision and create a place that would show off on how proper urban design can create places that are greater than the sum...
I would assume that most people who read MiceChat (especially those reading Samland) are the type who visit the Disney parks more frequently than the average guest. Just a wild guess. With that in mind, I am pretty sure...
Welcome to Samland. This week I have decided to reach over to the bookshelf and extract an excerpt from Walt and the Promise of Progress City. Toward the end of his life, Walt Disney was spending most of his...
Over the last couple of months, I have been making observations of things that have struck my fancy in the Disney Parks. The goal is to provoke a discussion. Thank you for playing along. Today, we'll journey to Disney's...
Let's face it: Tickets for theme parks are expensive. Every year, we have come to expect price increases that exceed inflation, and every year, we somehow find a way to pony up the extra bucks. With that said, I...
Go back to August 1953 with me. The team from the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) were about to present their findings for the ideal location of Disneyland to Walt and Roy Disney. Harrison “Buzz” Price was put in charge...
Last time, I took at look at my recent trip to Epcot. This week, the focus is on the Magic Kingdom. As we now know, the Magic Kingdom is Disney World's premier park, with a higher admission price than...
Epcot has long been a favorite of mine. As you can imagine, I have been somewhat obsessed with Walt’s original vision, if you know what I mean (I did write the book Walt and the Promise of Progress City). I...
I'm constantly working on all kinds of stories, research and ideas. Some become full blown articles here on MiceChat, others make it into books. Often, however, there are bits and pieces of ideas left on the cutting room floor....
I realize that most people associate early Monorails with Walt Disney. It is well-known that one of the earliest drawings of Tomorrowland by Herb Ryman had one crossing over the entrance. The Disneyland Monorail was the first daily operating...
In another look at yesterday’s tomorrows, let’s turn the clock back to 1975 and see what Walt Disney Productions (WDP) was up to with regards to their theme parks. Both Walt and Roy were gone and the management team...
Back in the late 1980s, Walt Disney Productions management was becoming increasingly concerned with the public realm surrounding Disneyland. The area had been deteriorating for years due to the laissez-faire attitude toward planning within the City of Anaheim. However,...
It was not my intention to milk this topic for a third installment, but everybody seemed to be having so much fun with it that I threw caution to the wind and here we are again. This week I...
Last week I decided to apply a tool I use at my day job to give me a reason to spout out a bunch of opinions about the state of the Disneyland Resort (Exceptional, Acceptable, or Regrettable Part 1).
How...
How do you get people to evaluate and document what they see and how they feel within the environments that they live, work, and play? That is a question I am frequently asked during my day job as an...
Harrison "Buzz" Price was a visionary businessman who profoundly influenced Walt Disney and many decisions regarding the theme parks and how and where they should be built. Two years ago, Sam Gennawey made it his mission to get Buzz...
Two years ago, almost exactly, we pulled out a megaphone right here on MiceChat and declared that Harrison "Buzz" Price should be awarded a window on Disneyland's Main Street. Next week, in a private ceremony in the park, that...
Sam Gennawey reviews three interesting pieces for Disney fans today. First up is the fascinating book, Who's afraid of Song of the South? by Jim Korkis. Next is information for the Disney geeks that are techno savvy. Do you...