No Mickey Mouse Plan : 7 Dwarfs Featured in Disney’s ‘Bashful’ Corporate Headquarters : GOES with graphic on Page 4

Giant, 18-foot dwarfs are coming to Burbank.

But residents need not fear being trampled or hearing monstrous choruses of “Heigh-Ho!” in the middle of the night. While large, they will be distinctly silent.

The dwarfs, who starred in Walt Disney’s classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” will be one of the most prominent features of the Walt Disney Co.’s corporate headquarters being built on company grounds near Alameda Avenue and Buena Vista Street.

All of the dwarfs will appear to support the peaked roof of the entrance to the building, according to plans submitted to Burbank city officials.

Dopey will be stationed above Doc, Grumpy, Bashful, Sneezy, Happy and Sleepy in the $28.6-million structure, which will range from four to six stories.

The 334,100-square-foot building is being designed by Michael Graves, a controversial but respected architect from Princeton, N.J. The building will also feature a seven-story rotunda, an open courtyard and an atrium.

“We’re really looking forward to this building,” City Manager Bud Ovrom said. “It will be a credit to have a Michael Graves building in Burbank.”

Most Burbank residents, however, won’t get to see the building, much less enjoy it. Like the Disney grounds, it will not be accessible to the public, but will be hidden behind a high gate and trees.

Details Under Wraps

The completion date of the building and other aspects of the project are being kept quiet by Disney executives, who said only that they would release details at a later date. Representatives for Graves also declined comment, saying they had been instructed by Disney not to discuss the building.

“What we do know is that the Disney folks have taken great pains to design the building in a compatible fashion with the rest of the Disney property,” Ovrom said.

“The whole Disney site is like a college campus, so everything is done for the employees. They keep a low profile. Disney could have built a 30-story office building, but they’re sensitive to the area.”

The building will combine fashionable architecture with Mediterranean-style features of stucco, tile and sandstone.

Graves is considered one of the leading post-modernist architects, said Los Angeles architecture critic Leon Whiteson. “Graves draws his inspiration from traditional architectural styles that predate” modern styles, he said.

Contemporary Architects, a kind of Who’s Who of builders, once called Graves “one of the most cerebral theorists and exciting aestheticians of architecture today.”

Time magazine once described Graves’ work this way: “Perhaps it might be called Pop surrealism that uses classic design elements the way Walt Disney cartoons used the physiognomy of a rodent to create Mickey Mouse.”

One of his more controversial designs is the Public Service Building in Portland, Ore. Graves is also designing a hotel-convention center in Florida for the Disney company, Disney executives said.

Burbank city officials praised the unusual design of Disney’s new office building. William Kelly, the city’s community development director, said the architecture will be “distinctive compared to other styles in the city.”

The new headquarters, however, is unlikely to make up for the disappointment Burbank officials felt when Disney recently abandoned plans for a $612-million retail-entertainment center it was planning for downtown.

Still, Ovrom said, the headquarters solidifies Disney’s commitment to the city. “They could have put their corporate headquarters anywhere, and there had been rumors that it would be somewhere else. But this shows that Disney is here to stay in Burbank, and we’re happy about that.”