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Walt Disney Imagineering
In May, Walt Disney Imagineering officially joined forces with Disney Development Company. The new unit emerged as the planner, creator and developer of all Disney resorts, theme parks and regional entertainment sites. WDI's leading-edge creative, technical and developmental abilities also were utilized during the year by other Disney segments, including The Disney Store, Disney Interactive, theatrical productions, the new Disney Cruise Line and the ABC television network. Though several of its major projects reached completion in 1996— the opening of the city of Celebration, the Disney Institute, Aladdin's Magic Carpet and Disney's BoardWalk Resort in Florida, the Fifth Avenue Disney Store in New York City and Toontown at Tokyo Disneyland— the future looks even more interesting.
In Florida, the visionary 4,900-acre community of Celebration continues to command the full attention of the Imagineering group known as the Celebration Company. Imagineers have been working with leading thinkers in the health, education, planning and design fields to create a town that combines the latest in technology with a comfortable sense of community. Celebration is surrounded by a 4,700-acre protected greenbelt. It provides a broad mix of residences, including apartments, townhouses and homes ranging from cottages to estates. Celebration's town center has been designed as a traditional small-town business district skirting a small lake. The first residents moved in last June. Eventually, Celebration will be home to 20,000 people. Imagineers also are at the forefront of the expansion of The Disneyland Resort. In addition to its involvement in a second theme park called Disney's California Adventure, WDI is lending its unique magic to plans for the 750-room Grand Californian Hotel. It also is deeply involved with the City of Anaheim and Disneyland in the design of landscaping, roads, parking and transportation services. At Disney's Animal Kingdom, under construction in Florida, Imagineers are developing a lushly landscaped adventure offering thrilling rides and animal encounters that will entertain and educate guests about creatures great and small—from live animals to mythical beasts and dinosaurs. WDI also contributed heavily to Test Track by General Motors at Florida's Epcot. This new adventure includes a 65-mile-an-hour "victory lap" outside the building, making Test Track the fastest ride Disney has ever offered.
Imagineers have re-created the textures, colors and art of Mexico and the American Southwest with Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, which will become the first moderately priced convention hotel at Walt Disney World when it opens in 1997. Also in Florida, WDI is hard at work on Disney's Wide World of Sports, a multisport complex that will be the spring training home of the Atlanta Braves beginning in 1998. One of its most unusual undertakings is participation in the start-up of the Disney Cruise Line, set to make its maiden voyage early in 1998 from Port Canaveral, Florida. Imagineering designed and built the 72,000-square-foot terminal, the only such facility for a single line of ships. At the cruise's stopover in the Bahamas, Imagineers are continuing to develop a seamless Walt Disney World vacation experience. The Disney-owned island of Castaway Cay will be home to a food and beverage pavilion, a mile-long private beach, a special children's activities area, a Bahamian-staffed post office and its own docking complex, the first such stopover dock in the industry. Equally unusual is WDI's painstaking restoration of the New Amsterdam Theater in New York City. The famous building, nearly 100 years old, was once the site of the city's finest entertainment, including the Ziegfeld Follies.
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