Monday, December 8, 2014

PI Update: The Latest Changes

A beautiful 80F degree weekend in Orlando and what better place to spend it than beautiful Pleasure Island!  Crossing the No. 1 Bridge onto PI from Marketplace.
The No. 2 Bridge from the PI parking lot is now closed and blocked, as is the lot itself.  Mannequins is now a walled compound and this access ramp only takes you to Raglan Road.
Save Pleasure Island Blog's exclusive SkyCam overview of Pleasure Island construction which is now mostly focused on the Island's lower level including the springs of Disney Springs. CLICK ON ALL PHOTOS TO SEE MORE DETAILS.
As we reported last week based on the latest Downtown Disney Guidemap, the PI bypass pedestrian causeway is now closed at The Hub so it can no longer be used by through traffic.
It can still be accessed from the West Side but it only leads to the PI Water Taxi dock and is blocked to the east. If this is permanent then we'd expect the closed section to be demolished but we speculate that section to ultimately remain attached to the PI dock with the currently open section becoming the section to be demolished down the road.
West from The Hub and climbing Hill Street, future new shops to the left and Paradiso 37 hemmed-in in yet another new way to the right.
Crossing West End Plaza at Adventurers Club and BET Soundstage.
SkyCam view down onto Hill Street.
Another view of same.
The former Pleasure Island parking lot has had its pavement scraped away and will become the home to Town Center, the main shopping area of Disney Springs.  We published exclusive concept art last week.
At the top of the picture, Parking C-D will be home to a future East Garage.
That concept art on the wall to the left shows Adventurers Club with a smokestack which has led many to speculate that this will become the home to The Edison Orlando.  The original in California is a club/performance venue and is housed in a former power plant.
But AC had a lower level which connected off stage to lower level offices beneath West End Plaza.  There is a lot of speculation that this hidden area will be home to The Tunnels, a venue of unknown purpose.  Here the SkyCam shows us how part of Paradiso 37 has been shaved away and the stairs that led from Village Lake up to the Plaza have been removed too.
A hidden entrance/exit for The Tunnels?  Or might that entrance/exit be somewhere over here (below)?

4 comments:

  1. This is pure speculation (or hope), but maybe, just maybe, the Tunnels will become a series of clubs out of the way of the family atmosphere now being built on the ground level. This would satisfy both the PI enthusiasts/loyalists and the Disney purists who objected to their kids having to walk through the nightlife (whatever).

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  2. I would not expect any "clubs" per se because the ceiling level in there is way too low. But a series of bars with adult entertainment of sorts at night is certainly plausible. Improv comedy anyone?

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  3. Do you have any idea what the rectangle box in front of AC almost against the wall is? You can see it in both Skycam shots. I don't remember anything like that from back in the day. It looks like the area just in front of the old AC steps.

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  4. I think it's just a future planter.

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