Some Cal Poly students are finalists in an international Disney contest with their design for a music-themed entertainment complex in San Francisco.

The students' self-described "un-Disney" proposal is one of four remaining in the Walt Disney Imagineering Imagi-Nations Design Competition. Imagineering is the company's creative think tank.

The Cal Poly group will make its final, closed-door proposal to a panel of Imagineering executives June 9.

The complex, called "Frequency," would occupy two city blocks in the Mission District area and is intended to be a place where people of all ages can attend concerts, learn about music and visit music-themed bars, restaurants and clubs, said team member Charles Dellinger.

"It's a complex centered around the international uniqueness that music brings to cultures but also how it ties everyone together," he said. "It combines (those aspects) in a facility that's entertainment-based but also educational."

Dellinger and fellow fourth-year architecture students Conrad Garner and Brian Gallo began working on "Frequency" as an independent study project last fall. Graphic communications senior Matthew Kull joined the team in January.

Garner said the group's design was one of four chosen from an international pool of proposals for anything -- including theme parks and new characters. Though there is no cash prize, all finalists will have an opportunity to interview for jobs and internships with Imagineering, he said.

The students knew they wanted to create some kind of entertainment complex, and Garner said they had a near-completed design before ever deciding on a theme.

"It's such a broad competition that we could really do whatever we wanted," he said. "Since it was for Disney, we could really be outrageous. We kept being told, 'Go bigger -- it's Disney.' "

The members decided on a music-based facility utilizing the latest audio and video technology after getting preliminary feedback from Disney several months ago, Dellinger said.

The complex would attract tourists and Bay Area locals alike, he said. But unlike other parks, it would be a starting point for other San Francisco destinations rather than an all-day commitment.

"It's more of an outreach toward the city," he said. "People from the city are going to be able to come there, but it will still have the tourism attraction."

The proposal also includes a 700-foot-tall hotel and convention center, as well as outdoor facilities such as a stage that would fold down from a parking structure and be suspended over water.

Garner said the design incorporates ideas from the Universal Studios CityWalk in Hollywood, Downtown Disney in Anaheim and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

Unlike other Disney parks, "Frequency" is more urban, modern and reality-based, Dellinger said.

"It doesn't reflect a time frame either in the past or in the future," he said. "It's less fantasy."

Garner and Dellinger said they did not know where the other finalists are from or what their entries are.