In the fall of 1985, nearly a decade before the Urban Land Institute and International Council of Shopping Centers turned urban entertainment development symposiums into a small industry, The Walt Disney Company and Jim Rouse’s Enterprise Development Company formed a joint venture to define and develop a new genre of destination. Rouse’s small, entrepreneurial team worked with and across the vast Disney organization, including Walt Disney Imagineering, Disney Development (years later merged with Imagineering). Disney’s corporate Strategic Planning group, and the Walt Disney Parks & Resorts management team from Orlando.
Over the next 30 months, punctuated by a litany of the nearly requisite fits and restarts, various incarnations of the Disney/Rouse joint venture researched, conceptualized and thoroughly planned three projects: first in Dallas, then in Chicago and finally in Burbank.
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Dallas: “Texposition”
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Chicago: Make No Small Plans
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Burbank: Beautiful Downtown Disney
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