The Obama Foundation announced the Obama Presidential Center campus will open to the public this upcoming Juneteenth weekend.
On June 19, the public will, at long-last, gain access to the 19-acre campus’s playground, museum building, public art installations, landscaped park space, and new Chicago Public Library branch.
The highly-anticipated opening will be a full-weekend affair with events running on June 18 through June 21, including a series of ribbon cuttings, talks, and activations.
A dedication ceremony on the John Lewis Plaza will commence June 18. The Obama Presidential Center will open its doors to the public the next day, June 19. On June 20 and June 21, community celebrations throughout the campus will take place.
President Barack Obama shared in a statement the center’s opening date is a timely one: “It is easy to look around right now and feel like the challenges we face are simply too big. But hope is not about ignoring the hard stuff. It is that thing inside us that insists something better awaits if we are willing to work for it.”
“Here on the South Side of Chicago, hope is getting a permanent home,” President Obama continued. “Starting on June 19, you can visit the Obama Presidential Center. This is not a monument to the past; it is a living destination for people who refuse to accept the status quo. If you feel that way, this is your invitation to join us.”
Artists such as Theaster Gates and Julie Mehrutu have contributed works to the campus’s granite-clad tower by TWBTA that can be seen from afar.
Ahead of its completion, critics have already weighed in on the project. Last month, Chicago Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bey pointed out the words—excerpted from a speech Obama gave in Selma, Alabama—lining the top of the building are difficult to discern.
Valerie Jarrett, Obama Foundation CEO, noted, “The opening of the ObamaPresidential Center will be a beacon of hope to the world and a place where we hope guests will be inspired to bring change home to their communities.”
Architecture studios BDP, Cox Architecture and Collage Design have revealed designs for a trio of sports venues in Ahmedabad, India, which will be built alongside the world’s largest stadium.
Named Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave, the complex will include a tennis venue, aquatics centre and indoor arena near the 132,000-seat Narendra Modi Stadium – a cricket ground that opened in 2020 and is the largest stadium in the world.
The Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave will include an arena clad in jali screens
The new venues at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave, which will be decorated with features that draw upon traditional Indian architecture, will be designed so that they can be used by local residents outside of major sports tournaments.
“Our vision for the Sports Enclave is to create an inclusive, sustainable and distinctly Indian destination for world sport,” said BDP India head Manisha Bhartia.
“By drawing on Ahmedabad’s architectural traditions and blending them with cutting-edge design and technology, we are designing beyond single-use, sporting venues that decay over time,” she continued. “We are shaping new, visually beautiful places that will host the world’s greatest sporting moments, but also remain an active, vibrant part of the city’s everyday life for decades to come.”
A fabric roof will top a circular tennis court
A tennis centre will be built on the eastern side of the Narendra Modi Stadium. It will include a 10,000-seat centre court, two show courts with capacities of 5,000 and 3,000 seats, and additional outdoor courts.
The centre court will have a circular shape with a raised fabric roof designed for shading and natural ventilation.
At the eastern end of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave will be an 18,000-seat indoor arena, which will host gymnastics and basketball events at the Commonwealth Games. After the games it will be used for concerts and other sports events.
The exterior will be clad in bronze anodised aluminium jali – a perforated screen with ornamental patterns found in traditional Indian architecture
At the western end of the masterplan, an aquatics centre will feature glazed walls with coloured glass louvres, designed to give a glowing appearance that evokes Diwali lanterns.
Topped with a swooping roof, the aquatics centre will host 12,000 spectators for swimming and diving events during major tournaments, and be reduced to a capacity of 4,000 when functioning as a community pool.
A National Institute of Sports Excellence will be located between the Narendra Modi Stadium and tennis centre, designed as a place for aspiring sports players with training halls, gymnasiums, recovery equipment and biomedical facilities.
Parks, restaurants and community sports courts will be added to the outdoor space along the riverfront.
The aquatics centre will be designed to have a glowing appearance reminiscent of Diwali lanterns
“The rich architectural response, building on Indian modernity and tradition, has created a truly unique design full of meaning and context that will make a lasting experience for global sporting events as well as a legacy that goes beyond such events,” said Cox Architecture director Alastair Richardson.
“This new public park and associated architecture will place Ahmedabad on the world stage for many years to come.”
Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the development will contain cultural and educational buildings, including a library, youth centre and museum, framed by landscaped parklands, plazas and performance spaces.
A gallery, music hall and fitness centre will also be built as part of the development.
Zaha Hadid Architects has designed a cultural district along the Zhedong Canal in Hangzhou
Renders of the proposal reveal a trio of sculptural waterside structures flanked with planted outdoor space and steps down to the canal.
A network of bridges and paths are set to weave through the site to connect both sides of the canal and the surrounding city with the new district.
“The Qiantang Bay Central Water Axis creates a series of new landscaped parklands, terraces and gardens along the Zhedong Canal – redefining the former industrial areas of the canal basin into a new green corridor and that weaves through the heart of the city,” the studio said.
The district will include a library, youth centre and museum. Render by Atchain
Zaha Hadid Architects drew on Hangzhou’s terrain for the buildings’ sinuous designs. This includes a glazed library volume, which will be framed with large “inhabitable architectural columns” set to double as storage and reading spaces for visitors.
“Serving as structural support and defining the institutes identity as assembled ‘stones of knowledge’, these columns will accommodate the library’s extensive literary collections and archives,” the studio said.
Externally, the library’s facade will be fitted with folded glass elements to draw natural light into the interior, paired with masonry tiles informed by the region’s jade artistry.
Renders of the building also reveal a shiny underside to the overhanging roof, and curving wooden structures on the interior.
The library will have “inhabitable architectural columns”
Alongside this, the International Youth Centre will have a tiered, terrace-lined structure influenced by the adjacent waterfront.
According to the studio, the building’s facade geometries will extend to its “carved interior”, where auditoriums, studios and event spaces will cater to the city’s students.
Terraces will wrap around the International Youth Centre
Throughout the development, flood-prevention strategies influenced by Hangzhou’s existing sponge-city infrastructure will be implemented.
Landscaping strategies will include permeable surfaces, planted swales and water-retention features for stormwater management.
For me, the answer is my mother, Emellen Mitchell Estes. Long before I was designing urban spaces or serving as Mayor, she was the one who gave me the “zoning permits” to build imaginary cities in our backyard in Atlanta.
An educator at heart, Emellen was a graduate of two iconic HBCUs—Morris Brown College and Atlanta University, now known as Clark-Atlanta University. She served as a teacher and Principal in the Atlanta Public Schools during the segregated 50s, 60s, and 70s. Despite the challenges of the era, she and my father fostered my passion for art, architecture, and the performing arts.
A tribute to Emellen Mitchell Estes, a dedicated educator and mother, whose influence shaped a legacy in architecture and education.
She didn’t just teach me how to build; she taught me who I was. She shared our rich ancestral history and kept me grounded in faith at the historic Big Bethel AME Church on Auburn Avenue.
I am the architectural designer, urban planner, and graphic & web designer I am today because she believed in the blueprints of my imagination.
UPDATE: The National Capital Planning Commission has postponed its final vote on the White House East Wing Modernization Project to April 2, 2026, after receiving over 32,000 written comments and having more than 100 people registered to testify during the public hearing on March 5, 2026.
Opposition to Donald Trump’s White House expansion plans has focused on the building itself but the implications for the grounds are just as egregious, writes Charles A Birnbaum.
The debate about the proposed White House ballroom has prompted questions about stewardship of the nation’s most important cultural patrimony. But it also illustrates how landscape architecture has been ignored, and how principled regulatory processes have been twisted into a performative auto-da-fé.
On October 15, 2025, as reported in The New York Times, president Donald Trump told a group of supporters: “We started with a much smaller building, and then I realized, we have the land”.
Laws and guidelines regarding the grounds are being flouted and ignored
The “land” to which the president refers is the White House Grounds, a site that ranks among the nation’s most historically significant designed landscapes. It is also listed both in the National Register of Historic Places and as a National Historic Landmark (NHL).
However, laws and guidelines regarding the grounds are being flouted and ignored, and regulatory agencies are being stacked with loyalists who have demonstrated little interest, if any, in understanding the significance of the cherished and beloved landmark they’re affecting.
For more than a century, one of the greatest influences on the White House Grounds has been the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr (son of the designer of US Capitol Grounds and New York City’s Central Park). He was the key contributing author to the 1916 Organic Act, which created the National Park Service (NPS), the federal agency that oversees the grounds.
In the act, Olmsted wrote the so-called “non-impairment” standard, where the NPS must “conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein, and… leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” The Organic Act is the foundation upon which nearly all NPS management decisions are based.
The report’s opening paragraph is both contextualizing and cautionary: “The White House Grounds… are characterized by many long-established landscape qualities of great dignity and appropriateness. It is of the utmost importance to perpetuate these qualities; and, in so far as they are affected by changes which are necessary or desirable for other reasons, to strengthen and perfect them instead of obscuring or weakening them.”
Landscape provides the essential overarching structure for the building
Olmsted noted that good management necessitates “a thorough study of the landscape history of the grounds,” and, as observed in the 2020 historical study The Olmsteds and The National Park Service, he specifically cited “the need for planning in advance of building expansion”.
Neither seems to be a priority at present.
There is one more important level of context. Since NPS is part of the Department of the Interior (DOI), the Secretary of the Interior is responsible for establishing professional standards and providing advice on the preservation of cultural resources listed in the National Register of Historic Places; that includes the White House Grounds.
Those standards can be found in the Secretary of the Interior’s “Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural Landscapes”. They were created following an important policy shift at DOI from a “building” focus to one that was more holistic at a “property” scale. Yet, these guidelines have been largely ignored.
Importantly, the primary concern in addressing a historically significant cultural landscape is not solely its materiality, which is the focus when dealing with historic building architecture. It is first and foremost the property’s visual and spatial organization and relationships.
At the property scale, the landscape not only serves as the stage, but it also provides the essential overarching structure for the building contained therein, like the placement of walls or windows of a structure.
Current discussions about the ballroom project are almost exclusively architecture- and artifact-focused
As the author of the above-mentioned “guidelines” during my 15-year tenure as coordinator of the Historic Landscape Initiative at NPS from 1992 to 2007, it is my observation that the proposed ballroom, in its current iteration, is wholly incompatible with the site, and fundamentally violative of the Organic Act of 1916 and the Olmsted Plan of 1935, which have guided decision-making for decades.
Unfortunately, current discussions about the ballroom project are almost exclusively architecture- and artifact-focused.
Some members of Congress have raised policy and procedural concerns. In an October 24 2025 letter, representative Mike Turner, founder and co-chair of the Congressional Historic Preservation Caucus, asked “what efforts were undertaken by the… White House to identify, document and preserve historically significant artifacts, fixtures, or architectural components in the East Wing prior to demolition?”
And an October 30 2025 letter signed by 60 members cites the White House Preservation Act of 1961, which “requires the preservation of any ‘historic’ or ‘artistic’ property, including furniture, fixtures, and decorative objects, for the American public”.
Neither the letters nor the White House Preservation Act address the significant NHL-designated landscape, its historic visual and spatial attributes, “witness trees”, et cetera.
The two reviewing agencies, the US Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) and the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) are now stacked with loyalists. They are largely bereft of the knowledge, expertise, and leadership needed to make consequential and informed decisions about the White House Grounds.
This administration has shown that it will do as it pleases
The CFA unanimously approved the project on 19 February, despite receiving a record number of public comments (some 2,000), more than 99 per cent of which were opposed, and the NCPC is expected to follow suit on 5 March, despite polling that shows the public objects to the project by a margin of two to one and tens of thousands of comments.
Fortunately, the congressionally chartered National Trust for Historic Preservation, a private non-profit, filed suit on 12 December 2025 to halt construction. On 26 February, judge Richard Leon ruled against the trust on procedural grounds, but he noted that if the trust “is inclined to amend its complaint”, which the trust has announced plans to do, “the court will expeditiously consider it and, if viable, address the merits of the novel and weighty issues presented”.
Even if the court rules in the trust’s favor, further appeals are expected. What will happen in the interim? This administration has shown that it will do as it pleases – the law and public opinion be damned.
Charles A Birnbaum is the founding president and CEO of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, a Washington, DC-based education and advocacy non-profit which awards the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize.
The photo is courtesy of the US National Archives.
The Bradfield Development Authority has revealed the next major milestone in the creation of Australia’s first new city in more than a century, unveiling the master plan and concept design for Bradfield City’s First Land Release, known as Superlot 1.
by Clémence Carayol
Designed by Hassell and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), in collaboration with cultural design partners Djinjama and COLA Studio, the ambitious reference design establishes a new benchmark for sustainable, inclusive and future-focused urban development.
The precinct will serve as the physical and symbolic gateway to Bradfield City, setting the tone for its evolution as Western Sydney’s new urban heart.
“We set out to create a precinct where nature and urban life are intertwined, ensuring Bradfield City feels welcoming, sustainable and uniquely of its place,” says Kevin Lloyd, Principal, Hassell.
Delivered by the NSW Government alongside developer and investor Plenary, the First Land Release is envisioned as a vibrant, 24/7 mixed-use precinct that will catalyse investment, innovation and community life.
More than 1,400 new homes will be delivered, including 10 per cent dedicated to affordable housing, alongside commercial, retail and community spaces.
The precinct is strategically positioned within minutes of the new Metro station and the expansive Central Park, reinforcing Bradfield City’s role as a highly connected metropolitan centre.
At the core of the master plan is an ambition to create a place where transport connectivity, urban density and deep respect for Country coexist.
This vision is expressed through the ‘Green Loop’, a 15-metre-wide landscape spine that weaves Moore Gully’s natural systems through the built environment. Shaped by extensive First Nations engagement and informed by Country through cultural design partner Djinjama, the landscape and architecture feel intrinsically connected to place from the outset.
Anchoring the Green Loop is the Community Gathering Space, an intergenerational hub housed within a striking timber pavilion. Its woven canopy of interlocking timber reflects the Aboriginal principle of “Enoughness”, taking only what is needed, offering a sustainable prototype for learning, gathering and connection that exists in harmony with the loop’s water and biodiversity systems.
The precinct’s design prioritises permeability and movement. A fine-grained network of active streets and mid-block pathways promotes walkability, safety and vibrant street life. At ground level, public spaces, retail, lobbies and shared amenities activate street frontages, encouraging daily interaction and participation in community life.
As an economic and cultural anchor for the new city, the First Land Release will integrate a major education campus, a hotel and commercial office spaces, strategically clustered near the Metro to foster a thriving innovation hub.
A diverse housing mix — including student accommodation, affordable housing and market-rate apartments — ensures a truly intergenerational community from day one.
Bradfield City’s First Land Release represents a confident new model for city-making: one that celebrates Country, champions sustainability and innovation, and places community at its core, setting a powerful precedent for Sydney’s newest city.
“To design a new city is both a rare opportunity and a profound responsibility. Bradfield City is a chance to shape a vision with Country and community, embedding resilience, sustainability, and innovation into every layer of the city,” says Michael Powell, Senior Associate Principal, SOM.
Images: Bradfield City First Land Release / supplied
Free automated network near ATL airport called “one of the region’s most innovative transit projects”
Another autonomous vehicle test project is officially en route, this time on the southern fringes of ITP Atlanta.
ATL Airport Community Improvement Districts officials broke ground last week on a long-planned Automated Transit Network Demonstration Pilot program, marking what project leaders called a major milestone for “one of the region’s most innovative transit projects.”
The pilot project calls for a free, public, on-demand ATN network that will stretch for ½ mile along a dedicated guideway, linking the ATL SkyTrain at the Georgia International Convention Center to the Gateway Center Arena.
The project will use technology from Glydways, a California-based self-driving vehicle developer.
Example of a Glydways vehicle bound for the 1/2-mile route on the southside. Glydways/ATL Airport Community Improvement Districts
The possibility of autonomous shuttles, buses, or pods zipping around near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has been explored for years. That push echoes alternative-transportation projects underway elsewhere in the metro, such as Cumberland’s forthcoming CAM Network and the Beltline-supported Beep project in Southwest Atlanta.
Near the airport, the goal of the ATN Demonstration Pilot is to showcase the capacity, scalability, and capabilities of such a system in real-world environments, according to project officials.
Gerald McDowell, AACIDs executive director, said in an announcement the pilot will provide “an innovative mobility solution for the future of transportation in our region.” Chris Riley, Glydways chief commercial officer, said the project “will demonstrate how our technology can be scaled and replicated in other communities, creating safe, cost-effective transit options across the country, and globally.”
The 1/2-mile pilot project is scheduled to open for public use in December.
Plans for the pilot Glydways route in relation to Georgia International Convention Center.Courtesy of ATL Airport Community Improvement Districts
Expansion beyond the initial route will hinge on a feasibility study led by MARTA that’s currently underway. Analysts will be closely monitoring the pilot project’s performance, scalability, and system capacity to determine if expansion to other south metro points of interest is feasible, per AACIDs leadership.
AACIDs, a self-taxing district of commercial property owners, comprises the Airport West CID and the Airport South CID and covers a 15.7-mile area across Fulton and Clayton Counties and several cities, including portions of Atlanta, East Point, Hapeville, South Fulton, College Park, and Forest Park.
A rendering illustrating Glydways functionality at the convention center stop on ITP Atlanta’s southside.Courtesy of ATL Airport Community Improvement Districts
A future alternative transit connection between the airport’s domestic and international terminals could also be in the works, AACIDs officials have said.
The logic goes that the service could help solve a primary complaint from international passengers—that connecting to MARTA from the international terminal is too difficult, or what Glydways officials have called a “missing link.”
IN THE SUMMER of 1955, Walt Disney had a problem. He was a few weeks off opening his most audacious venture yet and he had a decision to make: should he install flushing toilets or drinking fountains?
His plumbers had gone on strike and there was not enough time to do both. It was the last thing he needed. He was heavily in debt and had decided to stake not just his reputation but his personal fortune on building an amusement park, something which was normally free to enter.
But he needn’t have worried. By combining technical wizardry with the magic of the big screen, Disney had hit upon perhaps his most consequential innovation yet and one which would transform his dwindling kingdom into a global empire.
At the end of WWII, Walt Disney was in a bind. His movie studio had made it through the war making propaganda films, but he was now heavily in debt and it was beginning to seem like the glory days of Disney were in the past. But the man behind the world’s most famous mouse wasn’t done yet.
Above: Walt Disney in 1935.
A chance visit to a railroad fair in Chicago in 1948 sparked an interest in fairground rides. Amusement parks and fairs were nothing new at the time, but for Disney they lacked a certain magic. Usually they were designed around rides, with some attention given to scene setting and decoration, but nothing resembling a creative vision.
Disney wanted to create something new. A place with rides and attractions, but more than that, it would tell a story. It would project an image of an idyllic world, one of innocence and wholesomeness, where children could let their imaginations run free.
Above: An illustration of the original Disneyland layout.
To get his idea off the ground, Disney called in art director Herb Ryman and over the course of a frantic weekend in September 1953 they developed the initial concept for Disneyland. What they created was something radically different to anything that had come before.
The first major difference came in the layout. While researching other parks, Disney found one of their weaknesses was they often lacked a coherent plan, making them confusing to navigate.
If he were to create the happiest place on earth, it would have to be simple to get around and to do that, Disney had to meticulously design the flow of people as well as the attractions. That began at the entrance.
At the time, amusement parks in the US were typically free to enter and as such had multiple entrances. Disneyland however would have just one. By restricting the access to the park in this way, Disney was able to create a tightly curated experience from the moment guests stepped foot in his park.
Visitors would be greeted by an embankment, on which sat a station for a miniature railway, that ran the perimeter of the park. This would also conceal the park’s first illusion, the embankment doubling up as a physical barrier to prevent the sights and sounds of the outside world getting in.
From there, they would enter the park via a tunnel, which Disney called the “stage curtains”. A small plaque marking the point at which guests left the real world and entered the world of Disney’s imagination.
Above: The plaque welcoming visitors to Disneyland.
First stop after entering was Main Street USA, an idealised version of the American high street, heavily based on Disney’s hometown of Marceline, Missouri. From there, the park would make use of eye-catching visual elements, which Disney would coin as “weenies”, to pull people around the park.
The grandest of these would of course be a fantasy castle, which would draw visitors towards a central plaza: the hub from which every land, ride and attraction would radiate out. As well as making navigation easier, it would create a point at which people could meet and rest.
Branching off from this were a series of themed areas. Other parks had often included novelty buildings to give a sense of the exotic, but these would be standalone features, rather than part of a coherent theme. What Disney planned was total immersion. Just like the park itself, each land would be visually cut off from anything that might spoil the illusion.
Above: Visitors to Disneyland were drawn towards a central plaza which other attractions radiated away from.
With the concept sketches complete, Disney sent his brother Roy off to New York to raise the money for the build. But how do you turn something this new and unique into a reality? Disney had no experience building anything on this scale, let alone anything that broke with so much precedent.
He figured: relying purely on imagination would get him nowhere, but engineering on its own wasn’t entertaining. He needed people who could combine artistic creativity and practical skills to create something unique. What he needed was an imagineer.
Fortunately, Hollywood was full of them. He turned to set designers and artists in his own company, but also from a powerful rival. 20th Century Fox had a backlot four times the size of Disneyland and was filled with scenic artists used to building everything from city streets to steamboats. It was from here that Disney filled the ranks of his new army of imagineers.
The design process started with a pitch, which was then worked up into storyboards and further on into models of increasing sizes. The whole process was fluid, with constant revisions and alterations made throughout, including on some of the park’s biggest structures.
Above: Neuschwanstein Castle, in southern Germany.
Neuschwanstein Castle, in southern Germany was used as the inspiration for the iconic Sleeping Beauty Castle, which lies at the head of the park. It has a gatehouse, turrets and palace, all of which provided the reference for Disney’s version.
On the front of the palace, it also has a balcony, which leads from the spectacular Singer’s Hall. This detail was initially included in the plans but in a sign of how fluid the development was, it was changed purely by chance.
During the design phase, imagineers had taken the model apart for cleaning, only to quickly reassemble it when Walt Disney came to visit. In the rush, they put the palace back on the wrong way round. Disney noticed the mistake but preferred the way it looked and ordered it to be built as the model stood. The balcony still lives on today, but on the back of the castle.
This level of improvisation didn’t stop at the design stage. The Jungle Cruise has become one of the most popular rides of Disneyland and has since been replicated at other Disney parks. Designing a ride like this today requires months of planning and design work by huge teams of people.
Back in 1954 though, the ride’s layout was solely down to one man, legendary art director Harper Goff. With a bulldozer driver looking on, Goff took a stick and walked around the ride’s plot, drawing a line in the soil. Once completed, he drew a parallel line a few metres away.
The bulldozer followed, piling up the excavated soil on the embankments and the layout of the Jungle Cruise was complete.
Now this might all sound a bit “free jazz” but there was a lot at stake. If Disney didn’t pull this off, he stood to lose everything. As Disney’s ambitions for the park grew, so did the bill to pay for it all. By the time construction began, he had taken out USD$17M in loans: over USD$600M today.
He’d even put his own personal fortune on the line, selling properties and cashing in his life insurance to raise funds.
Above: The entrance to Disneyland.
In 1954, he had financing in place but with such a huge amount of money at stake, he needed the park to start earning as soon as possible. And that meant, opening in time for the lucrative vacation season the following summer.
On 16 July, 1954, a year and a day before the grand opening, Disneyland broke ground. To supplement his crack squad of imagineers, Disney brought in two crucial figures to oversee the construction: Cornelius Vanderbilt Wood and Joe Fowler.
Wood was a savvy businessman with a keen eye for organisation. It was he who had found the site Disneyland was to be built on: 160 acres of orange and walnut groves in Anaheim, California. At the time Anaheim was a rural farming town, but its flat land was perfect for building on and and access to the recently completed freeway meant downtown Los Angeles was just 30 minutes away.
Wood had previously worked at General Dynamics, training teams of people to build aeroplanes and soon set about organising the thousands of daily people on site.
Fowler, meanwhile, was a retired admiral and veteran of both world wars. He had spent the last few decades overseeing the construction of warships for the navy. Initially, he’d been drafted in to oversee the construction of the Mark Twain steamboat. But his ability to wrangle logistics made him invaluable for the wider construction effort of the park.
Fowler’s initial assessment of the plans were bleak. Of the 20 attractions planned to be ready for opening day, only six were likely to be ready, 11 were doubtful and three would definitely not be ready.
Together, Fowler and Wood adopted a strategy that prioritised the important storytelling aspects of the park while finding ways to cut corners and find efficiencies elsewhere. Their aim wasn’t perfection, instead they raced to get everything “good enough for opening day”, with a view to continue work afterwards.
But among the cost saving and improvisation were some truly impressive innovations. Main Street USA is designed to welcome visitors into a quaint, wholesome vision of Americana.
But it doesn’t take long to spot the movie magic at work here. Only the ground floor of each building is occupied, because the upper floors are too small. That’s because this whole street uses forced perspective.
Above: Main Street USA in Disneyland.
The technique has long been used in Hollywood, where sets are built at distorted angles to create the illusion of depth, or height in a studio.
Building a lifesize American high street was beyond even Disney’s means, but shrinking everything would just make the street look small. Instead, the buildings were constructed to a range of sizes, with ground floors built at a near 1:1 scale and the first and second floors built at increasingly smaller scales.
By decreasing the height of the building the higher it gets, our eyes are tricked into thinking they are further away and we assume it’s taller than it is.
The most effective use of forced perspective however, is on the iconic sleeping beauty castle. The tallest tip of the castle rises 23-metres off the ground making it slightly taller than the White House. So big, but not a towering fortress.
To make it appear bigger, like Main Street, each storey is built at a slightly smaller scale. But that effect is enhanced by introducing so many disconnected elements, all of a different height. Because there are no consistent storeys, our brain has less of a reference for how tall it should be, making the castle appear taller.
On July 17, 1955, after a year of frantic construction the moment of truth had arrived: the opening day of Disneyland. Everything had been building up to this moment. Thousands of guests were invited and a live TV broadcast was scheduled. But the opening was blighted by a series of disasters.
The park was swamped with people after thousands of counterfeit tickets were sold. Just as Joe Fowler had predicted, many of the rides weren’t finished and most of those that were ended up breaking down.
Above: Sleeping Beauty Castle.
A gas leak near the Sleeping Beauty Castle nearly burned it to the ground and the Mark Twain almost sank with the amount of people boarding it.
As for the striking plumbers: Walt had opted to finish the toilets on time, rather than drinking fountains, leading people to accuse him of a cynical ploy to buy drinks instead of providing free water.
But ultimately, none of that mattered. Just as his first cartoons had done nearly 30 years earlier, Disneyland had captured the public imagination. Work on the park went on and over the following years rides were continuously improved. Despite the princely entrance fee of USD $1 for adults and USD¢50 for children, within two months of opening, 1 million people had visited the park.
Disneyland had become so iconic, on a trip to America in 1959, President of the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev, publicly expressed his and his wife’s disappointment that they were barred from visiting.
For his part, Disney was never completely satisfied with Disneyland and with the lessons he had learned, quickly turned his attention to building a bigger, better version of his park in Florida. Walt Disney died before he could ever see the completion of his next creation, but Disneyworld would prove to be one of the biggest and most sophisticated theme parks ever built.
70 years on, the rough edges of opening day are long forgotten. What endures is the blueprint Walt created: a place built with the tools of Hollywood, the discipline of engineering and an imagination all of his own. Disneyland didn’t just revive his studio, it rewrote the playbook for how we design experiences, cities and entire worlds.
Additional footage and images courtesy of Disney, Orange County Archives, City of Anaheim Public Library, Library of Congress, ABC.
Members of the advisory council Commission of Fine Arts unanimously voted to approve designs for the White House ballroom expansion, releasing new renderings of the controversial project.
With this unanimous vote, the project will move forward for further discussion on 5 March by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), which “adopts, approves, or provides advice” on projects in the greater Washington DC area.
The CFA vote advances the project towards a 5 March meeting
The East Wing Modernization project includes replacing the former East Wing of the White House with a two-storey building and an expanded colonnade that would attach it to the Executive Residence, which sits at the centre of the White House complex.
The second storey will contain a 22,000 square foot ballroom (2,043 square metres), which was commissioned by President Trump as a space to host visiting dignitaries.
The CFA is made up of seven members appointed by the US president.
Established in 1910, the CFA reviews “matters of design and aesthetics” within the Washington DC area, and acts as an advisory board, but does not have approval in terms of the actual realisation of the White House expansion.
A large colonnade lines one side of the ballroom design
As a whole, the White House is largely exempt from the National Historic Preservation Act, which mandates review for projects on federal buildings, allowing for Trump’s expedited approval process for the project.
Drawings of the East Wing were effectively leaked recently by the NCPC ahead of the 5 March meeting. Although roughly similar, the PDF presented today included more detailed sections and floor plans than seen before.
By Henry Queen – Staff Reporter, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Populous is setting up shop in Atlanta after 30 years of local projects dating back to the 1996 Olympic Games.
The global design firm recently debuted here with five employees but could rapidly grow, said Jonathan Mallie, managing director of the Americas at Populous. The office is at 505 North Angier Ave. NE, where the Industrious at Old Fourth Ward coworking space is located.
Industry veterans Rob Svedberg and Lee Pollock were recruited from TVS and Jacobs, respectively, to lead the office.
“We’ve always had an eye on the Southeast,” Maillie told Atlanta Business Chronicle in a phone interview. “But for one reason or another, we never opened an office in the Southeast despite the number of projects we had. Taking a look at the amount of work, Atlanta makes the most sense in the world. You’re talking about an international hub; an incredible, vibrant city; and a place that we’re extremely excited to be a part of.”
The company’s portfolio of work includes Truist Park; Georgia Tech’s McCamish Pavilion; Nashville, Tennessee’s Geodis Park soccer stadium; and the renovation of Synovus Park, the new home of the Atlanta Braves’ minor-league affiliate in Columbus. Then known as HOK Sport, the company was also instrumental in planning out the venues and temporary infrastructure for the ’96 Olympics.
Ongoing stadium projects in the Southeast are Mobile Arena in Alabama and the University of South Carolina’s Williams-Brice Stadium, which is benefiting from approximately $350 million in upgrades.
Kansas City, Missouri-based Populous is also active at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport through its subsidiary Fentress Studios, which it acquired for an undisclosed sum in June 2025. That Denver-based architecture firm is working to create a more efficient lobby and security checkpoint at the north terminal.
Airports are similar to stadiums, Maillie said, in that they draw large crowds of people and are ripe for improving the customer experience.
The people that Populous recruited to head the Atlanta office are notable. Svedberg was involved in the initial design work at LaGrange Cricket Stadium, the 10,500-seat project that broke ground late last year. Other projects of his include the expansion of New York City’s Javits Center, Mumbai’s Jio World Centre, Nashville’s new Nissan Stadium and the rooftop expansion of the Colorado Convention Center in Downtown Denver.
Pollock brings 30 years of design experience, with projects located in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.
Other team members include Jonathan Bartlett, Matt Friesen and Meredith Mejia.
Just last month, Populous opened an office in Austin, Texas. Headcount at its Los Angeles office, meanwhile, grew about tenfold since its opening, Maille said.
“We have every intention of growing the Atlanta office,” Maille said. “It can move quickly if things are going well.”
Populous has 35 offices across the world, employing more than 1,600 people.
Last year, the firm relocated its Kansas City headquarters in the Country Club Plaza area to Downtown’s 1400KC building, also home to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City.
Populous also recently launched a new real estate service focused on designing mixed-use districts around sports, entertainment and civic venues. Atlanta is a hotbed for that activity, as evidenced by The Battery Atlanta surrounding Truist Park and Centennial Yards rising in the shadows of Downtown’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium and State Farm Arena.
“We refer to them as experiential districts that are developing around venues,” Maillie said. “And those venues could be sports facilities, they could be purely concert venues. They could be airports, or they could be convention centers. [It’s] almost a movement right now.”
