Universal Studios Hollywood's Ethnography

 

        Universal Studios Hollywood is known to being the entertainment capitol of LA. Located right off the Hollywood freeway in Universal City, Universal Studios is a destination that locals and tourists visit every year. Its located on top of and below a mountain that makes this place a well used space. Houses and antenna structures are built on mountains but theme parks are a different story. Theme Parks are built on flat land so that the guests don’t become exhausted while walking. Since there is limited land in LA county and Universal did not want to move there movie studio, they decided to build their theme park up above there backlot on the mountain. They made the theme park look as flat as possible by elevating rides and creating escalators that take you down the mountain. They used this space wisely and made everything perfect except the entrance. 

        Universal Studies grand entrance is far from grand. Theme parks are supposed to invite you in and amaze you the second you enter. Disneyland for instance has the most amazing theme park entrance in the world with Main Street greeting you and as you walk down it you see the icon of the park, the Castle. With Universal you just walk in and are greeted with an underwelming atmosphere. The only thing people seem to pay attention to is the statue of the filming crew. For such a great theme park you cannot experience its greatness until you walk past the entrance. As soon as you walk into the park you feel as if you were in an outdoor mall with no shade at all. The buildings are unimpressive and the greenery is no where to be seen. They have palm trees but they do nothing to enhance the theme if they are even going for a theme. It would be nice to see their park icon inside the park but sadly its out in the front near the parking lot. Universal is a big time movie company and they couldn't even get their very own theme park entrance right. I have a good idea though on how the entrance should look. The entrance I envision would be costly but would well be worth the money and could potentially bring in more tourism. 

        Universal is know for a lot of its movies and I would like them to bring in a few elements from a variety of movies. When you walk into the park you should be on a street with a lot of trees and a beautiful normal fountain in the middle of the street island. On the rite there will be themed shops as well as an entrance to the Jurassic Park restaurant. Behind these shops will be a huge mountain that towers over the entrance with beautiful trees and plants and a waterfall as well. On the mountain will be a luxurious restaurant themed after the movie Jurassic Park. There will be indoor dining as well as outside dining with a view of the Santa Monica mountains in the distance. As you eat outside you can see a stream of water leading up to a dip creating the waterfall. On the other side of the street there will be more stores but they will be themed to the New York skyline. Universal has filmed a lot of movies in New York and this would be a great tribute the those movies. In front of this store there will be more trees and benches to relax and enjoy the view around you. There will be a marching band performing on the street as well as popular characters roaming the street. This whole entrance will then lead you down the street to an overhead sign that says “Universal Studios” and right beyond that will be the parks icon, the Universal Globe. This entrance will be spectacular and will be a must see attraction for LA. 

        

        Space is limited and the way we use it is important. Universal used space wonderfully by creating a them park on top of a mountain but messed up with the parks entrance. If the theme park wants to be a true competition to the other theme parks in Southern California it needs to fix its entrance. When Disney messes up anything within their parks they fix it and an example of that is California Adventure that is about to come out of its 5 year expansion. The park was a flop when it first opened and was not up to Disney's standards, so for the past 5 years they have been fixing all of those mistakes and when the Park relaunches this summer it will have a new entrance and a new land. Universal should learn from Disney and create a theme park that is complete from the entrance all the way up to the rides. All it takes is money and Universal for sure has the cash to fix its theme park. With the announcement of “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” coming to Universal Studios Hollywood, maybe this is when they can remodel the entrance because after all once Harry Potter opens, the whole world will be watching.