Celebration is a traditional American town built anew. While this sounds relatively straightforward and benign, many of our concepts were contrary to most all conventional contemporary thought about community development
The skeptics were vocal, and we often found ourselves defending this “new town” concept long before the first dirt was turned. But our vision and the commitment of the “town” founders was strong. Celebration draws on and celebrates the best ideas found in the best, and best-loved, American places, villages, and towns, from Nantucket and East Hampton to Charleston and Coral Gables, practical places filled with ideas that for over three centuries have shaped our lives and value systems, and remain relevant and vital today. Celebration deals with schools and churches, libraries and banks, office buildings, shops, houses, and playing fields in a cohesive and interconnected way;
it encourages walking and biking, domesticates the car, protects wetlands, and reestablishes the street as our central public setting and public parks as a focal point for residential life. In its village center, there are apartments over the shops; a cinema, restaurants, and a grocery store all just across the street. Celebration is both a new and a familiar place, a place that people want to live and work in as well as visit. Now, ten years since the project was first announced, Celebration is a success.
It is an important benchmark for future community design, a convincing demonstration that it is possible to make and market a town. Celebration was undertaken with high ideals by its developer, The Walt Disney Company, whose leader Michael D. Eisner pushed for its realization as a business proposition that also needed to make a contribution to the quality of American life. Celebration’s goals of livability, sustainability, and strong community spirit resonate with a wide range of important audiences: consumers, educators, government officials, policy-makers, and health-care professionals. In years to come, the names of the architects and the planners of Celebration will probably be forgotten by many. But the town will stand as a rare testimony to the enduring tradition and appeal of American towns.