Disney Built Four Concrete Entrance Columns at Monstropolis, Then Started Cutting Them Up and Hauling Them Away by Dumpster

Four concrete columns went up at the entrance to Monstropolis. Three of them have come back down, and the pieces are leaving by dumpster.

New aerial photos from @bioreconstruct, published Monday by WDW News Today, show that the four concrete entrance columns Disney recently put up at the future entrance to Monstropolis at Disney's Hollywood Studios are not simply gone from the skyline. They are being "cut down into smaller sections and hauled away by dumpster."

Image credit: aerial photo by bioreconstruct via WDW News Today

The aerial above shows the result. Cut sections of pale concrete sit stacked in a roll-off dumpster. Down at the bottom of the frame, one slim column is still standing upright in the dirt, uncut.

How we got here

After the old Muppets Courtyard walls and columns came down, crews built four new concrete columns at the land's future entrance. On June 9, WDW News Today reported that aerial photos of the fresh column framework showed a notable departure from Disney's concept art: the columns were sitting at a 45-degree angle to the walkway rather than parallel to it.

By the outlet's July 15 report, the set was already being picked apart. The innermost column on the left had been removed and the innermost column on the right had been shortened.

Image credit: WDW News Today, July 15. Columns still standing above the construction wall in the outlet's July 15 report, with the innermost pair already altered.

In a later report, only one of the four was left standing, with three missing from the outlet's ground level vantage point. The far left column was the one still up.

Why did it happen? Nobody outside Disney knows.

This is the part worth being careful about. Disney has not publicly explained the removal, and no source has an official reason for it. WDW News Today floats three possibilities of its own: a decision to diverge from the original plans, an error in placement, or a structural problem that forced the demolition. All three are the outlet's informed guesses, not a statement from Disney, and the concept art mismatch reported back in June remains the only documented departure from the original plan.

Meanwhile, the land is getting its first real monster styling

The same batch of aerials shows work of a different kind nearby. Crews are laying the first sections of themed concrete in the land, and WDW News Today reports that wooden triangle forms in the images will resemble monster horns or teeth. Workers can be seen alongside a brand new poured section of wet concrete.

Image credit: aerial photo by bioreconstruct via WDW News Today. The wider view: fresh tan concrete going down at right, the dumpster and construction staging at left.

That follows the first decorative trim work appearing on the exterior of the Monstropolis restrooms the previous week, where arched window trim carried triangles pointing upward, again resembling horns. Those were the first monster-themed elements the outlet had spotted on the site, so the styling phase is underway even as the entrance columns come out.

What Monstropolis is

Monstropolis will be the first land based on Monsters, Inc. at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Disney has said the land's story centers on H.U.M.A.N. Day, short for "Humans Understand Monsters Are Nice," a celebration welcoming humans into Monstropolis after the events of the original film. The project includes the Monsters, Inc. door coaster, Harryhausen's, and The Glob theater.

Disney has not announced an opening date.

Sources

• WDW News Today, "Aerial Photos Reveal First Themed Concrete Work and New Entrance Columns Trashed at Monstropolis"
• Blog Mickey, "Monstropolis Entrance Takes Shape With Interesting Departure From Concept Art"

Image credits

Aerial photography by bioreconstruct via WDW News Today. Ground level construction photo by WDW News Today.