Bill Sims, vice president of Architecture and Facilities Engineering at Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, Calif., discusses the role of Imagineers in creating Disney theme parks around the world at this year's Lake Superior Design Retreat, Jan, 25-26.
Walt Disney Company CEO Michael Eisner has been dubbed a "Medici with mouse ears" by the press; he calls the architects in his employ "the Steven Spielbergs, George Lucases and Woody Allens of architecture." Eisner is referring to none other than talents the likes of Michael Graves, Frank Gehry, Robert A.M. Stern, Charles Gwathmey and Robert Siegel, Antoine Predock and Arata Isozaki. Though some architects have objected to Disney"s patronage as "demeaning and trivial," other observers, such as architecture critic Paul Goldberger, have concluded: "In 6 years, Disney has transformed itself from a builder of theme parks to one of the most ambitious patrons of serious architecture in the world. Today, it is no exaggeration to talk of the Walt Disney Company in the same breath as Cummins Engine, Johnson Wax or I.B.M.—corporations that have made architecture an essential part of their image." Yet long before Graves concocted the 28-ton swans that festoon Disney World"s Swan Hotel in Orlando, Fla., and Isozaki the mouse-ear-shaped canopy that fronts a company office building there, designers have played an integral role in shaping the iconic theme parks that have become synonymous with American culture for people around the world.
Ask architect Bill Sims, vice president of Architecture and Facilities Engineering for Walt Disney Imagineering. Sims is part of a Disney tradition that dates to 1952 when Walt Disney founded the Imagineering company, assembling artists, writers, designers, engineers, architects, technicians and craftspeople to create theme parks that "blend creative imagination with technical know-how."
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