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Oliver Wainwright on Disney's 'dream or nightmare' Storyliving community

2024-04-09T11:58:00-04:00

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.

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 midcentury-influenced member's clubhouse named for the fictional Parr family from the company’s “The Incredibles” franchise, where users can engage with Disney-themed art lessons and experience dinners inspired by Disney stories.

Related on Archinect: Disney unveils further details for planned Cotino community in the Coachella Valley. Image courtesy Disney Parks

In his latest article, Wainwright views the development through the lens of the Architecture of Stage Realities exhibition taking place at Arc en Reve in Bordeaux. The exhibition "paints a portrait of Walt Disney as a natural-born developer, a cartoonist who understood not only how to lure people into his magical worlds but how to keep them coming back," Wai...

Disney unveils further details for planned Cotino community in the Coachella Valley

2023-03-27T17:03:00-04:00

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 of amenities “thoughtfully inspired by Disney Imagineers.” A midcentury-influenced member's clubhouse named for the fictional Parr family from Disney’s “The Incredibles” franchise will now grace the development as a centerpiece to Cotino’s 1,700 homes, a town shopping center, and Grand Oasis manmade water feature.

Image courtesy Disney Parks

Disney says: “The main entertaining room will take inspiration from the movie and will feature a towering indoor/outdoor rockwork fireplace. Additional spaces will include five bedrooms, a kitchen, dining room, boardroom, and an art studio. Along Parr House's exterior, an elevated patio will present stunning views of the grand oasis and the surrounding mountain...

'Storytelling to storyliving': Disney unveils designs for a new master-planned community in the Coachella Valley

2022-02-16T17:04:00-05:00

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 community association will be operated by a selection of Disney cast members brought in from its Phillip Johnson-designed Celebration, Florida training grounds. The company’s press announcement also mentioned a club membership program that offers residents “curated experiences” including wellness programs and cooking demonstrations.

Image courtesy Disney Parks

On the surface, the structures that make up the planned communities don’t appear to be in the style of European-inspired architecture that was synonymous with the Disney brand. Instead, renderings appear to show more mid-century modern elements influenced by the local topography and material culture of the Palm Springs area, bringing it in lin...

This new California housing development aims to become the first 3D-printed zero net energy neighborhood

2021-03-25T18:46:00-04:00

Developers in Southern California are building what they say will be the first 3D-printed zero net energy neighborhood in the United States. Palari Group said it plans to build 15 eco-friendly 3D-printed homes on a five-acre parcel of land in Rancho Mirage, an upscale community in the Coachella Valley, near Palm Springs. The 1,450 square foot, single-story homes will be made from a stone composite material that is strong, fire resistant, water resistant and termite proof [...]

Mighty Buildings, the Oakland-based construction company in this joint venture, claims that it can 3D print structures twice as quickly with 95% less labor hours and 10 times less waste than conventional construction.

Meanwhile in Texas, construction technology company ICON has partnered with Kansas City developer 3Strands and Austin-based Logan Architecture to build a partially 3D-printed multi-home ensemble of four buildings in an East Austin neighborhood.