Pop Century "The Unfinished Years" question

[2girlsmom]

First, I apologize if I'm starting this on the wrong board, but I wasn't sure where to put my question. I was out on Google Earth today and zoomed in on the Pop Century Resort. We stayed at Pop in February (and will be there again this coming February! YEAH!!!:mickey:) and I recall looking over Hourglass Lake at the unfinished portion of the resort, but I can't recall how many buildings, other than the main building, were standing. In the Google Earth image, you see the main building and 2 buildings to the North. The interesting thing to me is that you can see the footprint of each of the other buildings that would have completed the resort, but it doesn't really appear to be an actual foundation for any of the buildings. Did they originally build out all of the buildings and then tear some down? It actually looks like there may be some building material in the footprints of a few of the buildings, but it is hard to tell. Any insight out there? Take a look on Google Earth if you're interested. I found it quite intriguing!

[JPL]

They basically just abandoned the site when tourism dropped off after 9/11. They completed the area that was closest to being done and left the other half as you see it today. It was planned to open in phases originally so one section was more complete than the other when they decided to stop construction. There have been rumours of it being completed as Family suites in the future but no official announcement or movement on this project have occured.

[Flower]

I actually took photos last week of the 'buildings', I don't have time to download them right now.

You can see that the resort buildings are hardly completed - the railing is only wood and several of the boards have fallen off. Obviously there is no paint to the building - at least I would hope that rust color that is on it now was not intended to be the finished product.

The main hall looks fairly completed on the outside.

As I was looking at the buildings I was wondering if completion was ever going to happen or if it would be best to tear everything down and re-use the land for a different themed resort, considering there is a lot of construction left to complete the buildings at the capacity it was intended for.

I am surprised Disney has not moved forward as capacity seems to be filling up and they are definitely moving forth with DVC's (granted funding comes from 'owners').

It really is too bad they are just sitting there.

[JerseyDad]

First, I apologize if I'm starting this on the wrong board, but I wasn't sure where to put my question. I was out on Google Earth today and zoomed in on the Pop Century Resort. We stayed at Pop in February (and will be there again this coming February! YEAH!!!) and I recall looking over Hourglass Lake at the unfinished portion of the resort, but I can't recall how many buildings, other than the main building, were standing. In the Google Earth image, you see the main building and 2 buildings to the North. The interesting thing to me is that you can see the footprint of each of the other buildings that would have completed the resort, but it doesn't really appear to be an actual foundation for any of the buildings. Did they originally build out all of the buildings and then tear some down? It actually looks like there may be some building material in the footprints of a few of the buildings, but it is hard to tell. Any insight out there? Take a look on Google Earth if you're interested. I found it quite intriguing!

...good guess, and you've got very good eyes 2girlsmom.
The "footprints" of the proposed buildings that you see in the Google Earth aerial photos are from the initial stage of the foundation construction. From an earlier itteration of the Google Earth aerials, piles had been driven into the ground to support the foundations of the buildings. It appears that since that time a new set of aerials have been taken (hence the completed Expedition Everest which was shown earlier with scaffolding still in place)...and a bit of overgrowth has taken place. They did not however, tear down any of the buildings. If you look closely, the foundation-footprints to the north are in a stage of slightly more advanced construction, with footings completed.

[ariel03]

Last I heard about the legendary years was that they where supposed to start building again this month but I haven't heard of any work being done yet.