27 years later: Celebration

[thelakelander]

A a virtual visit to a city developed by The Walt Disney Company, 27 years later.

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/27-years-later-celebration/

[CityLife]

I have family in Orlando and have played golf at the Celebration course a couple times. It's on too much of an island in the middle of nowhere to create a truly dense, urban area...but is still much better than the typical large-scale suburban development like a Nocatee. It's clearly a desirable place to live, as housing prices there are on the high end for the Orlando suburbs.

That said, it was a huge missed opportunity for Disney. If it had been on the other side of I-4 and integrated with the ESPN/Disney Wide World of Sports Complex, the 400k square foot Team Disney building, and it's commercial area was Disney Springs; it would be insanely popular. I'm sure Disney would love a do-over if they could.

[thelakelander]

I definitely believe they could have done a much better job with the frontage they have along I-4. It could have been a decent gateway from the most traveled arterial in Central Florida. Unfortunately, other than the architecture, that portion of the development along I-4 turned out to be the same autocentric oriented environment that we see throughout the state. Nevertheless, yes, it did turn out better than Nocatee or Oakleaf.

[fsu813]

Lake, ever visit Oakland Park in Winter Garden? Just curious. They've incorporated many pedestrian friendly/urban principles, while having more rural/suburban amenities at the same time. A relative lives there. I was surprised they actually have alleys.
https://liveatoaklandpark.com/community/

[CityLife]

^Most traditional neighborhood development's (TND)  have extensive alley networks. Many of the homes at Celebration, Baldwin Park and other new TND's around the state are located on alleys. The alleys in these neighborhoods are typically much more functional and heavily utilized than those you are used to in Springfield.

Oakland Park is a square peg in a round hole though and too small to actually be a TND. It has some of the design elements necessary like alleys, double frontage lots, and community greenspaces; but has absolutely no commercial, recreational, educational, religious, and institutional uses incorporated within it. Still a great place to live and Winter Garden is a cool part of Orlando, but just not a good example of a quality TND development.

Though far from perfect in execution, Celebration is a better example of a TND. It has a walkable, bikeable downtown, a k-8 school in the middle of the community, sports facilities, churches, community pool/amenity center, and a greenway network. Yes, many residents of Celebration may still have to commute to their jobs offsite, but the reality is that there is still way less need to leave the neighborhood or drive in a car than in your traditional autocentric community.  In Celebration's case, the rate of walkers/bikers to their K-8 school or church is likely exponentially more than a typical suburban neighborhood. I mean there is a Columbia Restaurant in their downtown, so you clearly have a lot more residents walking to eat/drink as well.

As stated before, Celebration made some major mis-steps and could have been much better by locating in the center of more development and incorporating more office, sports, and entertainment uses. Designers in Florida have gotten a lot better at designing TND's. Baldwin Park is better than Celebration and my neighborhood Abacoa in Jupiter is better than both. I don't like to speak in absolutes, but if someone ever built a comparable modern version of Baldwin Park or Abacoa in Jax, it would do incredibly well. 

[jaxlongtimer]

I am thinking Seaside (and maybe its sister developments, Watersound, Alys, Rosemary Beach) is a step up in design and walkability from Celebration.  Does anyone else agree?  I recognize these are more resort/second home type communities but they still seem to attempt to be mostly self inclusive on some level and, based on my visit, have a fare share of permanent residents.

[CityLife]

^Agreed. All good examples of new urbanist development. While Seaside is still nice, Duany/Plater-Zyberk learned from their mistakes there and made Rosemary Beach even better. Because these are mostly newer developments, the architecture is also a big step up from some of the earlier new urbanist developments around Florida.

[Josh]

I stayed/visited Seaside/Watercolor for the first time last summer and was blown away. That whole area seems to be what North SJC would hope to be from a design/development standpoint, and doesn't come within a country mile of.

On the way back we drove through Rosemary Beach, and the biggest thing that stood out to me there was how little consideration for storm surge there seemed to be in the design of the homes. I didn't walk down to the beach there to see how high the roads and homes close to the water were compared to the ocean, but there seemed to be a lot of homes with finished and living spaces right at ground level. I guess the wealth of the homeowners there versus a place like Mexico Beach factors into how much concern there is for damage from a hurricane. 

Alys Beach was like I had been transported to another planet.

[jaxlongtimer]

^ I did walk down to the beach at Rosemary and recall there was some elevation.  Of course, the real question is how much elevation is enough .  If a Cat 5 directly hits any of these communities, I am sure they will have a good amount of damage regardless of building standards. Even if the structures hold, the sad part will be the destruction of the vegetation and the shoreline that gives it its character.

When leaving that area, we took a back road to Tallahassee to pick up I-10.  Although miles inland, most every pine in the tree farms for miles was snapped in half from Hurricane Michael.  Amazing to see that far from the Gulf.  The bridge from Gulf Island National Seashore into Pensacola will still out so that whole stretch was closed to traffic, a bit of a disappointment.

What makes the area most special to me is the string of amazing oceanfront state and city parks.  All beautiful and better than any resort beach.