When Florida’s Walt Disney World opened in 1971, NBC’s David Brinkley called it “the most imaginative and effective piece of urban planning in America.” This in-depth program, taught by a 30+ year veteran of theme park design at Disney and Universal Creative, demonstrates how to import the practices of theme park design into the discipline of placemaking.

You will hone your architectural narrative sensibilities through concrete examples from theme park design, architecture, and real estate development, further strengthened through classroom discussion and practice pitch sessions.

The program will consist of three sessions, with a mix of lecture, back-and-forth discussion, and interactive exercises that enable you to immediately apply what you’ve learned.

• The first session, “Telling”, focuses on how to distill a project’s emotional core into an easily communicated form, called a log line.
• The second session, “Selling”, centers on the mechanics of pitching your project, with a focus on stakeholder analysis and leading your pitch with a compelling vision rather than facts.
• The third session, “Gelling,” brings it all together by sharing how to sustain the telling and selling of your project’s story from groundbreaking through significant milestones, including completion, lease-up, and more.

• Learn five fundamental principles of entertainment architecture.
• Practice reframing your project as an emotionally engaging story by adapting theme park design practices.
• Reframe your thinking from investor-focused to user-focused, since the user is funding your project.
• Understand the role of marketing data in analyzing what is essential to your potential user.
• Acquire the skills to tell distinct, memorable stories.
• Grow as a leader by becoming a better storyteller.

This program is for: 

• All real estate professionals and designers engaged in making places.
• Real Estate professionals and designers who are tired of having their projects stuck in the entitlement process.
• Anyone interested in placemaking as a storytelling discipline. 
• Individuals seeking a better understanding of working in theme park design.

This program requires no previous design experience or ability.

We recommend anyone signing up for this program watch Ole Sceeren’s Ted Talk “Why great architecture should tell a story”:

You might suppose that entertainment architecture is the architecture of theaters and amusement parks, and structures exclusively designed by theme park architects. However, the term entertainment architecture can refer to any building or structure, regardless of its location and function, provided that it is designed to stimulate the imagination and encourage fantasy and whimsy. 

Some works of entertainment architecture are playful recreations of famous monuments. Some feature enormous statues and fountains. Entertainment architecture is often considered postmodern because it uses familiar shapes and details in unexpected ways.

Source: ThoughtCo.