Walt Disney Museum Makes its Debut

The Presidio just keeps getting better and better. Yesterday, what is destined to become a star attraction opened: the Walt Disney Family Museum.
Diane Disney Miller and Walter E.D. Miller, daughter and grandson of the creator of Mickey Mouse, Disneyland and dozens of beloved movies, cartoons and TV shows, designed a place where they and the public can celebrate the life, the work and, most of all, the inventiveness of Walt Disney, the man -- not the big corporation he founded.
It's located in one of those handsome red-brick barracks buildings that line the Presidio's old parade ground. Inside, there's no doubt where the $110 million that the Walt Disney Family Foundation spent went: everything in the building was renovated with high quality materials, and the result is stunning, including one gallery with floor-to-ceiling plate glass windows overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.
The museum is expected to draw 450,000 visitors a year, 80% of them 45- to 65-year olds, said Richard Benefield, museum director. It's a "walk down memory lane" for baby boomers who grew up with Disney.
The museum does not disappoint. Those who love Disney will spend hours here and even those with just mild enthusiasm for his creations will enjoy it. Anyone interested in animation and movie-making will visit again and again.
For one, it's a terrific history lesson in Americana. The ten galleries trace Disney's life from his childhood in the Midwest, the move to California, the struggles in building his business and, most of all, the creativeness in designing his enchanting characters, the first animated movies and, finally, Disneyland.
There are scores of interactive exhibits, display cases of fascinating memorabilia and large video screens playing snippets of movies and interviews with the main himself. Even some of the controversies are addressed: you can listen to Disney's testimony before the House Un-American Committee where he stated that he thought the studio strike that shut down his studio for several weeks was the work of Communists.
One of the final galleries contains a model of Disneyland as Disney envisioned it (left). There's also a large gift shop with merchandise unique to this museum (which is operated separately from Walt Disney Co.), a small cafe and a theater that shows Disney movies three times a day (separate admission charge).
Tickets are $20, with discounts for seniors, students and children. They are sold online at www.waltdisney.org using a timed-entry system allowing 60 visitors to enter every 50 minutes. Local residents may enjoy museum membership that allows unlimited visits per year.

Goldsworthy in the Presidio

I walk in in the Presidio almost every day but, somehow, I missed the new Andy Goldsworthy sculpture until a couple of weeks ago when a friend led me to the new clearing just past the Arguello Gate where the work -- called simply, the Spire -- now towers over everything around it. I was speechless for a few minutes. If you've seen the documentary, "Rivers and Tides," you know how Goldsworthy works: he draws inspiration from materals he finds around him. Twigs, leaves, stones and reeds are used to create art from nature. Here, he's made a piece from cypress trees that were planted in the Presidio more than 100 years ago. Apparently very quietly, Goldsworthy has been spending quite a bit of time in the forests and groves of the Presidio the last three years. Thanks to funds from an anonymous sponsor, he set about creating a new work, deciding to use 35 trees that were felled as part of the Presidio's reforestation project. During a two-week period this October, Presidio workers dug a 14-foot hole on the site Goldsworthy chose just above the Inspiration Point overlook. A 350-ton crane lowered in the trees, which are anchored in concrete. Eventually, as new young trees grow, 90-foot high Spire will disappear in the forest. All this is described in a wonderful exhibit on the Presidio's Main Parade Ground in Building 49, a restored officer's home from 1873 that has been turned into a temporary Goldsworthy museum. There's a history of the Presidio forest, background on Goldsworthy, the drawings he did for Spire, and even another, smaller spire that he created inside one of the house's cabinets. Admission is free. Meanwhile, the Spire is just beyond the Arguello Gate and the Presidio Golf Course's clubhouse. Walk a few hundred yards up the Bay Area Ridge Trail. If you park at the the Inspiration Point Overlook look west and you'll see it poking up above the hill.

The Presidio: How Much Change?

San Francisco's Presidio, a vast military post-turned-national park dating from 1776, is the largest historic renovation project underway in the United States. In the area of the Main Post alone there are more than 100 buildings in different states of repair.
This summer, everyone seems focused not on renovation but on a possible new building, specifically, the Contemporary Art Museum proposed by Donald and Doris Fisher, The Gap founders. The Fishers would like to build a 100,000-square-foot museum (larger than San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art) on a prime corner of the post's Main Parade grounds, steps away from the stately Montgomery Street Barracks, built in the 1890s (photo above). It would house their collection of 1,000 pieces of major artwork. There's now a tennis court and 1960s-style building with a bowling alley on the site.
Should a modern glass-and-concrete structure go up in an historic setting such as this? Should the Presidio Trust board, the agency that oversees and manages the park, reject the proposal or direct the Fishers to one of three alternate sites?
To help people decide, The Presidio Trust is conducting free 90-minute walking tours of the Main Post on Wednesdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. through Aug. 27. Meet at the ground floor of the Officers' Club.
It's a good tour. The one I took on Wednesday was led off by a Presidio Trust archeologist who discussed recent findings around the Officers' Club -- where three-foot thick adobe walls were uncovered that may date back to the late 1700s.
From there, two Presidio Trust staff showed us around the Main Post, stopping at the Parade grounds, the 1930s-era Presidio Theatre, the site of the Contemporary Art Museum, the proposed Park Lodge (a plan also under discussion, but less controversial) and the recently renovated Funston Street homes (photo below) that date from the Civil War.
From the questions that rose from the 50-or-so people on my walk, there was no question that the art museum is a hot topic. Most reflected the views of the neighborhood groups who are opposed to the plan: they seemed disturbed by the Fishers' proposed location. The building would be too big, too modern and incompatible for the historic Main Parade.
Many seemed open to alternatives, such as Infantry Terrace, an area tucked in the forested glen just a few hundred yards east or at the Sports Basement site near Doyle Drive and the Crissy Field marsh. This is a discussion that's going to be in the news a lot this fall. Decide for yourself. For more, see the Presidio's Web site.