Great Exchange Creative Campus

Great Exchange Creative Campus or G3C is the name of a real estate project of the Walt Disney Company on an old industrial waste land of 50 ha of the town of Glendale in California. It must accommodate many companies of Disney directed towards the creativity and new technologies.

In the beginning the site is that of an old airport transformed into industrial park and which should become a campus of companies to the image of the university campuses. This site is located at a little more than 3 km of the Walt Disney Studios of Burbank and at approximately 55 km of the park of Disneyland, accessible by highways.

History

The history of the site is closely related to that of aviation in California. But since the years 1990, it is animation and new technologies in the field of the creativity which gives again life with the site.

Before Disney

The first hangar deprived for plane of California was built on the town of Glendale in 1912. Quickly several associations were formed and two organizations launched out in the commercial aviation. They asked for the construction of a municipal airport in order to serve San Francisco.

In December 1922, the municipal council authorized the construction of an airport on an old ranch of 13,3 hectares located along a railway and close to the Los Angeles River.

The March 17th 1923, the municipal airport of Glendale is inaugurated with an air rodeo like opening ceremony. The length of the track of 365 m will not enable him to develop. Several accidents, an electric line in the south and an orchard of fishing in north decided the federal authorities to refuse a commercial flying activity since this track.

At the end of the Years 1920, the town of Los Angeles wanted to obtain an important airport. Several sites were studied of which current the International airport of Los Angeles. In 1928, an old driver convinquit several contractors and bought the airport of Glendale at the city. It bought additional grounds for a total of 70,8 ha and prolonged the track up to 1.160 Mr. It made build a named air terminal Grand Exchange Final Air according to the plans of the architect Henry L Gogerty mixing the styles Spanish Colonial Revival and Art Déco. The building opened on February 22nd, 1929.

The airport of Glendale was the first to offer flights between California of the South and New York and three months after its opening it was repurchased by the group Curtiss Airport Corporation famous later Curtiss-Wright.

In 1931, the airport installs a school of pilots, mechanics and engineers aeronautical on the site. This school installed in the terminal was directed by the Major Moseley, cofounder of Western Airlines.

During the war one second track is built by closing one of the streets perpendicular to the first track, Sonora Avenue. It will be closed in 1947. In 1944, Moseley repurchases the airport and Grand Exchange Airport renames it. But at the end of the war only the small planes are authorized to use the airport (thus becoming an aerodrome).

The school, renamed meanwhile Technical Cal-Aero Institutes , closed in 1957 followed the July 15th 1959 by the aerodrome.

The zone was transformed into a light industrial park with warehouses and small factories.

Disney establishes the " magie" in Glendale

In 1961, Walt Disney buys a ground for installed the division of design and construction of the parks with topics, famous WED Entreprises Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) in 1984. Walt had chosen this site for its proximity with the Walt Disney Studios of Burbank accessible by the highway just like the park from Disneyland.

Between 1996 and 1999 Disney launches out in the purchase of several grounds near the buildings of WDI for an total surface area of 50 ha and this in spite of an increase of 16% of the prices of the immobilier.
In 1999 Disney builds new studios for the Californian chain KABC-TV in order to release the buildings occupied on the site of Disney Prospect Studios in preparation for the restoration of the latter. The chain settles in December 2000 in its new buildings.

In September 1999, the press announces the projects of Disney for the campus. An important file is put in line in October 2000 on the site of the town of Glendale and the site continues to update the state of progress of the work.

In 2002 the studios of production of Walt Disney Television Animation move in a building in the north of the property on Sonora Avenue.

Various entities of Disney

The creative campus

Disney redéveloppe the zone to transform it into a campus with beginning 23 225 m ² of offices and other spaces on Flower Street having to open in 2007. This first part of the project of a budget of 30 million $ must was completed in December 2006 and includes/understands two buildings of three stages, 11.612m ² each one and architecture close to that of the TEAM Disney Building located not far from there.

The two buildings are located just at the south of the head office of Walt Disney Imagineering (which seems to have to be rdétruit and rebuilds in the new architectural style. The two buildings were built according to a North-South axis and are separated by the prolongation from the Circle Seven Drive , a dead end leading to the studios of ABC7. The two buildings face on their with dimensions the shortest and raise, in their medium on this frontage, a tower of 4 stages pointing out that of the Large Terminal.

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