Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
Disney’s magical footprint is about to expand through a new strategic initiative at its long-established Orlando and Anaheim theme parks. The company’s largest-ever expansion of Walt Disney World in Florida is reportedly worth $17 billion and will unfold over a period of 15 years to cover... View full entry
Airbnb has added a replica of the floating house from the popular 2009 Pixar film Up and other unique pop culture-inspired stays to its inventory. The experience is part of Airbnb's new Icons line of vacation rentals, which CEO Brian Chesky recently unveiled to the public in Los Angeles. ... View full entry
With revenue from cinema and streaming falling in recent years, income from Disney’s “experience” division is soaring, and property development is the next logical step. Disney tried it before in Florida, first with utopian plans for Epcot (the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow), followed by the quaint town of Celebration, but Storyliving takes the branded living experience to the next level. — Oliver Wainwright, The Guardian
Writing for The Guardian, critic Oliver Wainwright reflects on plans for a major Disney-themed development at Rancho Mirage in the California desert. As we reported initially in 2022 and in a follow-up last year, the 2,000-home Storyliving by Disney scheme will include a... View full entry
The LA Times and other local outlets are reporting on the progress made by Disney towards eventually realizing an expansion of the existing plot of Disneyland, a move billed as generating multiple community benefits for the city of Anaheim. The $1.9 billion DisneylandForward project does not call... View full entry
Disney’s planned “Storyliving” community is gaining traction after the company released an update featuring additional details about their new Cotino project located in Rancho Mirage, 11 miles east of Palm Springs, California. As KTLA reported this weekend, the scheme will come with a host... View full entry
The former President of Walt Disney Imagineering Bob Weis is joining Gensler as a Global Immersive Experience Design Leader, according to a statement released by the firm. Before the move, Weis spent more than 30 years at Disney. Having joined Walt Disney Imagineering in 1980, Weis became... View full entry
The Walt Disney Company has announced detailed plans and a developer for its new 1,300-unit affordable housing development outside of Orlando. The company says its latest housing project says will support the local Orange County Housing for All plan that will deliver 86,100 units of... View full entry
Tokyo Disney Resort has revealed that one of its most iconic rides, Space Mountain, will be closing for a major renovation. The overhaul will commence in 2024, and by 2027, the rebuilt cosmic attraction is promised to offer enhanced performance and immersive special effects. The reported cost of... View full entry
Now, more than 50 years later, a more urban part of Disney’s utopian idealism is taking shape. The company is announcing a new project to augment its vast theme park and resort development with 1,300 units of affordable housing, set on 80 acres of land right next to Disney World. — Fast Company
The Walt Disney Company is hoping to work with an unnamed third-party affordable housing developer to build the project. The units will be available to income-qualifying candidates from the general public and Disney employees. This initiative comes as Orlando-area rents are increasing, with the... View full entry
Those looking to spend their lives in the wonderful world of Disney may soon see their high hopes fulfilled after the 99-year-old entertainment giant announced a slate of new master-planned communities that will begin to take shape in its namesake’s one-time Southern California home. Each... View full entry
The Walt Disney Co. said Thursday it planned to build a new regional campus in central Florida to house at least 2,000 professional employees who will be relocating from Southern California to work in digital technology, finance and product development. — CNBC
Chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products, Josh D’Armaro, in a letter to employees, said the move would allow creative and business teams to be better integrated. The new campus will be located about 20 miles to the east of Disney World in a master-planned community called Lake... View full entry
Shanghai Disney Resort today announced that the main construction for the its highly anticipated Zootopia-themed expansion had begun. It will be the first-ever Disney park worldwide to construct a park inspired by the 2016 animated film of the same name. The new expansion will sit adjacent to... View full entry
When planning, Imagineers wanted to open up the space and improve access into the land. However, it was important to maintain its overall complexion—with trees and beautiful planters. As shown in this rendering, guests will soon be entering Tomorrowland on a widened pathway lined with elliptical planters that are filled with swirls of colorful flowers. — Disney
The Imagineer team studied different Tomorrowland entrances throughout the years, extracting key architectural elements. In a recent press release concerning the new work, Disney writes, "When 'new' Tomorrowland debuted in 1967, Walt Disney and his Imagineers envisioned this land as a... View full entry
Last July, Disney purchased the rights to develop the property at 4 Hudson Square from Trinity Church for $650 million and earlier this year tapped Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to design a new HQ for the media giant. SOM and developer Silverstein Properties have just revealed the first renderings of the project, which will occupy an entire city block and span across 1.2 billion square feet—including retail on the ground floor—and house up to 5,000 employees. — 6sqft
Renderings © SOM / bloomimagesRenderings © SOM / bloomimages View full entry
...Climate change is bad for business. But as I’ve seen firsthand, companies that invest in clean energy, engage customers in sustainability efforts and leverage their influence to drive smart policies can turn a downside risk into tangible cost-savings, customer retention and global leadership. — Forbes
Many of Walt Disney's original plans for Disney World, in Orlando, Florida, were scrapped shortly after his death in 1966. Disney envisioned EPCOT (short for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow), for instance, as a hotbed for scientific research and a model for energy and material... View full entry