Disney Firm Neighbors Are Grumpy,--and Happy

Instead of classic Ionic or Doric columns, the Seven Dwarfs, colored orange, dominate the Greek temple-like facade. And just below the eave, where a stone goddess might recline, that’s Dopey holding up the rafters.

Ever since the Walt Disney Co. unveiled the dwarfs on its controversial corporate headquarters in Burbank earlier this month, the building and its 18-foot dwarfs from the Snow White fairy tale have made neighbors grumpy and happy but certainly not bashful.

“It’s just overbearing and god-ugly,” said Sandra Calta, who gets a perfect--or rotten, in her opinion--view of the structure from her porch on South Lincoln Street. “You got round and arches and squares, you got everything . . . leftovers from a demolition crew. A frustrated architect couldn’t make up his mind about what he wanted.”

But Robert Sellinger, vice president of California Kitchens Inc., disagreed. “It’s better than an ugly building that has no character. It’s something more than just a bunch of ugly windows.”

The 334,100-square-foot unfinished headquarters at Alameda Avenue and Buena Vista Street resembles a six-story medieval stronghold, made of monumental blocks of reddish sandstone from India. It replaced a Disney parking lot and a grassy area with trees.

The structure boasts a broad, castle-like tower behind the Greek temple front. The tops of the walls in one part of the building are shaped like giant ocher-colored film reels--stucco semicircles connected by a copper roof. Chop off the top half of the creation and the bottom, broken by black-tinted windows, resembles a university library whose solidity demands respect.

That combination is what New York Times architecture critic Paul Goldberger called “visually seductive” in a review published earlier this month.

Designed by controversial but respected architect Michael Graves, the building is part of a new Disney effort to build what the company calls “entertainment architecture.”

“Everything we do is quality-oriented and everything we do is entertainment-oriented and our building is no exception,” said Alan Epstein, vice president of the Disney Development Co. “It’s a great building. It brings to Burbank a new level of quality that didn’t exist.”

Epstein said trees and bushes will be planted along the building to soften its image. As for negative opinions of the building, he said: “Architecture is a subjective thing. When we focus on distinctive buildings, we would expect to have” more than the normal number of comments.

Burbank residents find nothing to sneeze at in the $28.6-million creation honoring Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney’s first animated movie. Their opinions are as varied as the building’s themes.

From Rachel Bloch’s lawn, the tower, but not the dwarfs, is visible. “It’s a really classy looking building, so it doesn’t destroy the neighborhood,” said Bloch, 18, who wore a Mickey Mouse T-shirt. “It’s like you’re in a small town with a little more in it. It’s one of the fun ways of getting offices without making it look like a city office building. I like the colors. It’s not garish.”

Patti Hanlon, who says she plans to move soon from the house on Lincoln, where her father grew up, to escape booming development in Burbank, disagreed. “It stands out too much. You look down at the end of the street and all you see is a big, ugly building. I don’t think it keeps within the atmosphere in a residential neighborhood. The color is awful, the architecture is awful. I wish they could tear it down.”

Whether they consider it a cheerful sight or an eyesore, some Burbank residents fear the unique architecture will draw more gawkers to the area and add to the neighborhood’s traffic.

Remy Guzman, who has lived in Burbank for 18 years, laughed one morning as she watched parking tickets being slapped on about 10 cars along her street. “She had a ball,” Guzman said of the ticketer.

Guzman lives on Brighton Street across from Disney Studios and said she likes the new building, but can no longer see the Hollywood Hills because of it. From her porch, the building’s inescapable presence reminds her that Burbank is no longer a sleepy town.

“Look at the tourists driving here to see our place,” Guzman said. “Traffic is going to be terrible. Before, it was a small town. Now it will not be so quiet anymore.”

Some folks wish they could doctor the building--paint the dwarfs bright colors, put Snow White welcoming folks at the entrance, and turn the building around so that the sick children across Buena Vista Street at St. Joseph Medical Center can be cheered by the sight.

“Leave that building alone!” said Rosalind Gee, waving her hand in the air to give imaginary slaps to all those people fussing about the Disney building. “It’s Disney. That’s what’s Disney’s about,” said Gee, a claims adjuster.

Other Burbank residents, who otherwise might have turned up their noses at the building, said they liked the building because they have fond memories of Disney cartoons.

“God, I remember when I was a kid and I saw ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ and it brings back memories of ‘Bambi’ and all Walt Disney’s original movies,” said mailman Jim Avery, who has lived in Burbank 29 years. “They were things that made you feel good inside.”