June 1910 — August 16, 2000 was a horticulturist who led the landscaping of Disney theme parks for half a century. In particular, he transformed the landscape of 80 acres (320,000 m) of forest in Anaheim, California to create Disneyland. This image was taken by an 80-foot crane and shows the way landscaping connects the park together. Here you can see the courtyard in the middle of the roundabout at the end of the main street; Sleeping Beauty Castle is in the background.
For anyone who really wants to appreciate the beauty of Disney’s landscaping, I suggest purchasing a copy of the 1988 Gardens of the Walt Disney World Resort. Additionally, all landscape features must support the storylines that are presented in every country or location within a park or resort. A continuous berm and clusters of tall trees surrounded Disneyland, while thousands of acres of cultivated green belts provided a protective buffer around Disney World. In addition to his work at Disneyland, he played an important political role in passing legislation (which was enacted in 195) that required the approval of landscape designers in California.
He was named a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1982, and the Landscape Architecture Foundation honored him with a Special Tribute Award in 1996. He worked as a design and landscape consultant until a few weeks before he died at the age of ninety-two. This sublime philosophy had no greater advocate than Walt Disney, whose view of the Disneyland experience was to create a completely engaging and realistic environment in which guests were part of a comprehensive show. She lectures and publishes about modernist landscape architecture and is a member of the State Bar of California. The importance of landscaping, trees, plants and flowers for his idea of an amusement park was strongly influenced by Walt’s love and appreciation of the large Tivoli Gardens Park in Copenhagen, Denmark.
In her book “The Making of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park,” Melody Malmberg tells the three-part philosophy of this master landscaper and recognized leader in this field. The landscape surrounding the Grizzly River Run is an example of the thoughtful design that can be seen in all areas of the park. For Disneyland, they created a local nursery suitable for the Anaheim climate to replace natural species that occur along the Mississippi, New Orleans, the African jungle, or any other fictional location within the park. The Evans brothers worked with landscape architects Ruth Patricia Shellhorn and Joseph Linesch on the original design of the park.
Evans helped create a template for landscape planning, design, development, and horticultural inspiration for theme parks around the world.