Seuss Details – Little House Parting Shot

Here is the parting shot for one of the little houses at Seuss Landing.  This is the same house that we have explored all week.  As we began the week I described the lightning rod, so that seems like a good place to end.  The company that fabricated the lightning rods was was very accommodating.  Since each rod (or actually finial) was to be custom made they were very willing to make each one different.  The problem was that would have meant that I would have had to design each one.

I'm not exactly lazy when it comes to design.  I really love to do it.  But as field art director I had seven buildings with countless details to manage when the offer came up.  This sort of design is easy (and relatively inexpensive) during the initial design phase.  But not so in the field.

I knew that each finial would be bent differently because of the crude bending method.  By turning and pointing the finials in different directions they would all look different.  Also, it's difficult to see more than two, or three of the little houses all at once.  Finally, if one were on a mission to investigate the design of each little house, one could only conclude that the similarities were intentional.  The similarities give houses a sense unity within the Seuss world.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Seuss Details – Little House Window

When you're trying to make dreams come true one of the most important things to remember is the truth.  It doesn't matter what kind of whimsical place you've designed, the truth is that gravity won't change -- and neither will the effects of rain water.

This little house at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure in Seuss Landing fell victim to the laws of nature.  The sill of the window was sloped slightly in instead of out.  Now this isn't exactly the kind of structure that one takes a level to, so the error was easily missed.  That is, until the first rains came.  A standing pool quickly developed that would have eventually damaged the structure.  Fortunately the problem was quickly noticed (it was actually hard to miss), and easily corrected.

The foam finish was so easy to work with that the repair was made in a couple of hours.  The patch had to completely dry before it could be repainted.

Seuss Details – Little House Door

The details at Seuss Landing Islands of Adventure just keep getting smaller and smaller.  This a door for one of the little houses that sit on top of the Emporium shop and the Moose Juice, Goose Juice drink stand. The door was designed as an access panel to maintain the interior lighting.  The door is less than three-feet tall.  The door was carved out of a resin coated foam and glued onto a frosted plastic panel.  It is intensional that a crack of light is left around the outside edge of the door.

Seuss Details – Little House Structure

As the field art director for Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, Seuss Landing, it was my job to make sure that the final product looked just like the original design.  Yesterday's post showed a little house on top of the Emporium shop and the Moose Juice, Goose Juice drink stand.  Well this is that same little house under construction and seen from the roof.

The architectural firm responsible for this building showed details for these little houses that would match any full-sized house.  There were steel stud walls and framing around the windows.  There were even individual light boxes behind each window.  The problem with that design was that the finished product could never have looked right.  Some of the window were only 10-inches high and 6-inches wide.  I explained that these houses were no bigger than a dog house.  Well the name stuck, so that's what we came to call them.

The construction sub-contractor understood what I needed and came up with this brilliant idea.  To a steel frame we attached a frosted polycarbonate resin thermoplastic called Lexan.  To this we could glue foam siding and just cut-out the windows and door openings to use the frosted plastic as the window.  When a single light inside was turned on all of the windows would glow.  One door (or large window) was removable for access to the light.

Seuss Details – Little House

In Seuss Landing at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure there are so many wonderful little details.  This is one of the many little houses above the Emporium shop.  That crazy little finial is actually a lightning rod.  Several of these rods were custom made and then bent into odd directions.

Seuss Juice – Closed

Most people never think about what a theme park looks like when it’s closed.  Who cares?  Hasn’t everyone gone home?  Well, with more than 30 years in the theme park industry I’m here to say no.  From my experience I learned that there would always be a slow day when one place or another is closed during the operating day.  I knew that the Moose Juice, Goose Juice in Seuss Landing at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure was a prime target for such closings.

I decided that a simple curtain was the best way to close the stand down at night, to protect the counter equipment from the elements.  This curtain should also be designed to be attractive in case the park is still open.  The architects had a different idea.  Everything at Islands of Adventure had to be designed to withstand 200 MPH hurricane winds.  They decided that included the drink stand curtain.

They searched until they found a manufacturer with a side-rolling door that would meet the standard.  Now, if this were something that was really required one would think it would be easy to find without an extensive search.  Anyway, the bulletproof door was such a monster that it required both a top and bottom track to close, along with a huge motor.  Again, my theme park experience told me what to expect from a bottom track, especially nearby food.  If you guessed a constantly jammed track you’re ahead of the architects.

It was no surprise for me to see that just a few years after the park had been opened, the steel door was no more.  In its place was (inspiration) a curtain.  Who would have thought?  Common sense could have saved us thousands and I’d have put a very interesting Seuss pattern on the curtain to boot.

Seuss Juice – Tiles

To illustrate the story of Moose Juice, Goose Juice, we decided to recreate Dr. Seuss art in tile.  I designed the tile mural, but I take no credit for the goose itself.  I carefully copied original Seuss art so as to keep the work faithfully in model.

A great deal of research went into designing all of the buildings in Seuss Landing at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure.  So one could imagine our disappointment when we saw the first pass at the tile work.  It looked like the goose had been painted for an elementary school play (which is not a nice thing to say about elementary schools).  The work was dreadful and it was complete.  The interior designer and I had to reject it (no we wouldn’t let it go up on the wall despite management’s pleading).

We had sent the tile company full-sized artwork in the first place, but we sent it again, along with an art director.  Fortunately the second time was the charm and we have a beautiful mural to prove it.

Seuss Juice – Lights

Believe it or not those funny Seuss birds are light fixtures.  When I was designing Moose Juice, Goose Juice at Seuss Landing for Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, we discovered that the original design needed lights.  The funny birds seemed like a good place to start.  Why wouldn’t they have lights in their headdress feathers?  Then to make it more interesting, we added up lights into the base.  The up lights add interesting shadows at night because the bird’s body is in the way.

Seuss Juice – Counter

What kind of bar is this?  It’s the bar, or counter of Moose Juice, Goose Juice.  Although there is no alcohol served here, whoever designed that checkerboard must have been drunk.  Well, no that’s not the case.  I designed the pattern.  It’s a soft drink stand at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure Seuss Landing.  I was not only the field art director, but I also designed it from Hollywood.

When it came time to paint the counter face full-scale, the scenic artist didn’t know how to start.  One way to transfer a small-scale design to full-scale is called block reproduction.  With this method a regular checkerboard grid is drawn over the original art.  Then a larger version is drawn onto the full-size surface and the artist just matches what’s in the blocks.  Well, you can imagine just how easy that would be here.

So the scenic artist began to draw the odd checkerboard by eye.  Well, the pattern was too small and it quickly became too regular.  There was only one solution to the problem – I had to draw it full-size onto the counter myself.  And now there is a large, bold pattern that flows with the rhythm of the building.

Seuss Juice – Drink Stand

This is not actually called the Drink Stand, that’s my name for it.  Like everything else in Universal Studios Islands of Adventure Seuss Landing, the real name is a Seuss rhyme.  In this case it’s Moose Juice, Goose Juice.  The sign was designed to revolve alternately displaying the two names. 

When I joined the Seuss team in Hollywood, this was the first facility that I worked on designing.  Art director Wes Cook began an original design, and I came in to turn his imaginative illustration into something that could be built.  The challenges were many for this oddly elliptically shaped counter and arcade.  Wes Cook demanded that all shapes have a rhythm, and indeed the two side arches seem to lean towards the center, while the weight of the ride track (above) pushes down.

Seuss Details – Railings

Seuss Landing at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, needed lots and lots of railing and none of it could be straight.  This railing needed a mechanical look achieved with the expanded metal panels.

Notice how, in the image, the top rail and mid rail run parallel to each other.  Much of that bending needed to be done in a shop using a set of jigs.  Of course, once we were in the field, adjustments had to be made too.  That’s when steelworkers discovered that they could actually bend the railings, to my direction, in the field.  The workers had a good time doing it, and actually figured out the rhythm of the bending without having to have me looking over their shoulders.

In some cases, like this image, safety panels were required.  I designed rectangular panels that, when set on angles, don’t look all that straight anymore.  But the panels were easy to make in the shop, and we needed plenty of them.

Seuss Details – Ham Rails

While I was field art directing for Seuss Landing at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, the team was doing our best to eliminate straight lines.  The problem is trying to eliminate straight lines and still keep repetitive elements cost effective.  I designed most of the handrails for Seuss Landing.  I came up with a system of bent rails that actually repeat (although they don’t look like it).  

Seuss Details – Caro-Seuss-El Painting

While I was field art directing Seuss Landing at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure I found this band, on Caro-Seuss-El to be one of the most difficult for painting.  It’s relatively flat, for Seuss, how could it be so hard?  Well, the senior art director had come up with this design on paper.  It looked great, and he had even created a developed view of it (making it into one long strip) so that we could all see that it would work.  And then we got into the field.

While we were building this band in full scale it seemed to squash and stretch a little.  That didn’t matter while it was all one color, but it did matter when we started to paint.  The design didn’t line up with the cutout shape.  I hadn’t designed the original, so I didn’t know all of the details, or thinking that went into it.  I only had the finished art to go by.  But I dove in anyway.  I had to draw much of the pattern for the painters (anywhere that they couldn’t figure out).  Then we had to figure out what color went where.

It was just another day in the whimsical world of Seuss Landing.

Seuss Details – Lightning Rods

This week I’ll be posting some details from my field art direction work at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. 

When I’m making dreams come true I have to pay attention to all dreamers.  My bosses, and the Theodor Geisel estate, dream of a world that looks just like something Dr. Seuss would have drawn himself.  The Florida building department dreams of buildings that meet the building code, including things like lightning rods. 

In Seuss Landing nothing is straight, and that includes lightning rods.  The silver stem coming out of the pillberry bush, on top of the Gertrude McFuzz entrance to the Emporium shops, is actually a lightning rod.  We carefully researched the code and there was no requirement that lightning rods had to be straight – they only needed to be a certain distance away from the structure.

This is not the only crazy lightning rod in the area.  But it might be the only one that you’ll be able to spot.

Theme Park Circulation – The Loop Plan

There are a number of ways to plan for visitor circulation in a theme park, but they often end up as variations on a few basics.  The Star Plan uses the rays of the star as walkways all leading back to the same hub.  The plan is simple; it keeps themed lands separated and keeps visitors from getting lost.  The Wheel Plan adds an outer rim walkway to the Star.  It improves the circulation and the even distribution of visitors.

The Loop Plan is yet another basic circulation plan.  The Loop plan is commonly found in Universal Studios theme parks, such as Universal Studios Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Singapore.  Modified versions of the Loop are also at many other parks.  The plan is simple: the entire circulation system is made up of a single walkway loop that passes in front of most major attractions. 

The Loop allows for a large body of water to be placed in the center of the park, to be used for water pageants, extravaganzas, and exhibitions.  The loop walkway provides an existing viewing area capable of accommodating large numbers of visitors.  The themes of the lands remain separate, and the visitors have no trouble finding their way.

The only problem with the Loop is even distribution of visitors and utilization of facilities.  With the Loop plan, careful planning is required, but seldom performed.  Instead, trial and error has left many expensive mistakes.

First, one must understand some basic visitor psychology: the route is obvious, and the visitor intends to travel in one direction around the route without going back.  Studies should be done to determine if there is a preference of direction for visitors to travel.  Americans drive on the left, are they more likely to turn left when entering the Loop?  At Disneyland the two entrance tunnels at Main Street receive almost identical numbers of visitors; perhaps this will be the case?

The average theme park visitor visits for eight hours.  Again, simple psychology; we work for eight hours, we play for eight hours, we eat lunch somewhere in the middle.  Looking at the illustration we can see that the park has been divided into eight zones.  These zones can represent visiting hours.  The majority of visitors enter the park during the first three hours of operation. 

For the Loop plan that means that zones 4, 5 and 6 will be under utilized for the first three hours of the operating day.  Then, just as lunchtime comes, visitors from two directions will converge on this area, hungry all at the same time.  The theme park generally intends to have a sufficient hourly meal capacity to serve the entire park full of visitors in three hours.  The food better be there when the guests arrive.  Then, all at once, the area is deserted again.

Although my explanation is somewhat simplified, the real experience has been similar.  At Islands of Adventure, Seuss Landing is located about where the number 2 is on the illustration.  The zone opened with four food facilities, yet three of them are closed most of the time (I believe that Green Eggs and Ham has closed permanently).  This was an expensive mistake that could have been avoided with proper planning.

There are many good reasons to consider the Loop plan, but it requires very careful planning to be successful.

The theme park basics discussed here are extremely general.  Always consult with experts, regarding your specific needs, before making any significant investment into land and/or design.  Feel free to contact me.  I’ll be happy to assist you in your efforts.

Seuss Landing

By the time that Seuss Landing at Universal’s Islands of Adventure was complete I had art directed seven facades. The final buildings are the icons that make Seuss Landing what it is today.

Here is just one example of a completed façade. Visit Universal’s Islands of Adventure and Seuss Landing to see more of my work – it will be all around you.

The Colorful World of Dr. Seuss

Before the Islands of Adventure project moved to Florida, art director Wes Cook had painted color elevations for all of the buildings. The colors were carefully chosen, often using the books as reference. The two-dimensional paintings seemed to cover every side of the building. But Seuss Landing is a 3-dimensional organic land growing in the Florida sun.

Colors that had high contrast on paper appeared pale in the field. Two-dimensional drawings have lines at corners where Seuss buildings don’t have corners. Figuring out how to respect Wes Cook’s original vision while working with the reality in the field presented the ultimate challenge for making dreams come true.

I convinced management that the models had to be painted in order to solve the problems at a small scale and a small price. Repainting a giant green ham was expensive (I know because it happened). Colors had to be pumped up.

The stripes on the cat’s hat are a deep salmon in the book. That’s fine in print, but in the Florida sun the primer coat that matched the book looked pink. Management asked me repeatedly if this was the right color. There was only one right answer, “No, that’s just the primer.” I chose a new deep red that actually fit what everyone had in mind.

Here is a photo for one of the models after it was painted. I had permission to the have the models painted, but I only had one painter assigned to the job of seven models. I ended up painting on much of the models myself in order to get the job done in time to be useful.

Shaping Up Seuss

I had seven facades to art direct while I was in Florida working on Seuss Landing at Islands of Adventure. The sculptors did a brilliant job of carving huge blocks of foam into the world of Dr. Seuss. The foam thickness varied from 2-inches to 2-feet. As the Styrofoam was shaped white beads were shed and floated about like snow. But this was Florida in the summer and, even though it looked like Christmas, this was very hot work.

Here sculptor Joe is shaping a header over a window on the Emporium retail store. Generally the talented team of six sculptors could look at the ½ -inch scale models, that we kept for them nearby in the field, and turn it into a full-scale reality. On rare occasion I tried my own hand at the work, especially when it came to wrinkles.

After the foam was carved into shape it was covered in a thin coat of plasticized concrete and fabric mesh as a weather-tight hard-coat. Then it could be textured and ready for paint.

Making Seussian Dreams Come True

The easy part of making dreams come true is the dreaming. The hard part is understanding the truth and working with it. Among the many truths to building a theme park is the need for brick and mortar, nuts and bolts, to actually be fashioned into something unique and different. And it takes people to do that job.

Islands of Adventure, Seuss Landing had an overall construction contractor that hired a façade sub-contractor, which hired a sculpting sub-contractor, to make the dreams come true. Fortunately, I had a good working relationship with everyone. The façade sub knew that this project would be high-profile enough that it would get them more business, so long as it was successful. They knew that if they made me, the art director, happy it would be successful.

The construction day began at 7:00am. I would arrive in the field at about 9:00am. By that time things were really moving and questions had already come up. Some days, as soon as I arrived, a line would begin to form with workers and questions. I would do a quick triage to rank importance. Sometimes I could just stop by a particular building a little later. Sometimes I could give a quick answer to a known situation. Other times I had to go to a location immediately because work had stopped pending my input.

In any given day I answered hundreds of questions to keep the work moving. Most of my time was spent with the sculptors (or carvers) that shaped huge blocks of foam into wild Seussian creations.

Construction ended at 3:30pm and I would head back to the office to catch-up on paperwork and, when necessary, draw up solutions to the problems faced in the field. My day never ended before 7:00pm. When a drawing was required it was usually completed and delivered the next day.

Here is an example of just one such drawing and its final solution.

Back to Seuss

During the year that I spent with Universal Studios, Japan, the Islands of Adventure project had moved into the field and into construction. Seuss architecture was very challenging and art director Gary Lee had long wanted me to assist him with it. I couldn’t relocate along with the project because I had not been figured into the original budget. Now, a year later, things looked different and I was asked to rejoin the project.

I was faced with a dilemma: stay with Universal Studios, Japan and fully realize the Snoopy Studios project; or go to Florida to finish up on Islands of Adventure and Seuss. It was not an easy decision but I knew that there was much more talent available in Hollywood (where we were designing for Japan) to replace me. In fact, I had a friend that I could call upon that I knew would respect my original vision. I called on Kent Elofson to replace me with Snoopy Studios. Kent not only followed my original direction he actually made it better.

This left me free to pursue the Seuss project.

The rest of the team had been out in Florida for a year. I could only imagine how far behind I would be when I arrived and how far along the project must be by now. To my surprise what I found when I arrived was dirt.

My time had been spent much more productively in California. I had designed a whole new land for Japan while the Seuss team sat around and watched tractors push dirt (actually I know that they were working hard, it's just that there was little to show). Now it was time to dig in (so to speak) on Seuss.

The image shown here is actually about six-months after I arrived. Here the Green Eggs and Ham building is rising out of the dirt. Painters are painting the fork while a high-reach is available. Everything else is just primed. I'm standing on the ground radioing instructions to the painters and taking pictures. Of course, when I first arrived nothing was vertical.