An end to America's decades-long new (Tier I) park drought is on the horizon.
My drawing is an amalgamation of the artwork, plans & models that have surfaced on the internet, with some personal flourishes. The two major influences - the key artwork above and the Drainage Plan - differ somewhat, so I've had to select elements from each for this drawing.
Feel free to comment any thoughts or corrections on what is what.
CELESTIAL GARDENS
The curvy pathways and water features that form the spine of the park seem to have a SciFi-Victorian (i.e., Discoveryland) style which looks appealing in the artwork. Here's hoping reality measures up to the feeling conjured by the art. Kudos to the designers for creating a unique path/park layout - it's something different than anything that has come before.
The Helios Grand Hotel will dominate the park, so many of the important vistas will live or die on the hotel's design & execution. It would be great if Universal can buck the current trend and create an architecturally-great hotel building (last one was 2001's Mira Costa).
Another cool aspect of the overall park is that there are plans for similarly-shaped-but-appropriately-themed "Spire-Portals" at the entrance of each land (all but the Wizarding World one are visible in the art). Each seems to have a silhouette echoing a castle:
WIZARDING WORLD - PARIS
The art shows that the third Wizarding World in Orlando is planned to look like classic Paris. With London & New York already represented in the Universal Studios, it makes sense to tackle a 3rd Great City of the World in this park.
Clearly, the original plan was based on the Fantastic Beasts series being a creative & commercial home-run. Since that hasn't been the case, will Universal cut bait on the Fantastic Beasts connection (as I wish Disney had done with the Abrams trilogy) or change the timeframe & locale of this wizarding world entirely? It already appears the rumored "Broomstick simulator" is in limbo.
The key art reflects that the Paris of Grindelwald didn't feature much in the way of highly-stylized locales such as Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade. I wonder if Universal Creative and WB Art Directors take it upon themselves to invent a slanting, "wizarded"-version of the streets of Paris?
MONSTERLAND
Over the years I've drawn a number of Classic Monster lands for various Uni illustrative plans, so I'm excited that one is finally coming to fruition. The artwork, plan and model found on the web show somewhat varying takes for this land. For this drawing I went with the enclosed theater in the south. I've seen a stunt show or a return of Graveyard Revue speculated. I was thinking a Biergarten-type entertainment/dining venue could be a part of the village.
The art and model show the center of the land will have a Camp Jurassic/TSI style explore area, with rope bridges, caves and such.
NINTENDO WORLD
The version of this area that I've drawn is a near clone of the Osaka park's land, slightly-reconfigured. There is a little more space to the land in Orlando which allowed me to add flourishes in the form of Bowser's Airship near his castle and a temple-themed light dining venue in Kong Country.
Perplexingly, the key art shows a markedly different (City) theme to the area than Japan's Mushroom Kingdom. The key art & my plan also include a Spire Portal that is much more elaborate than the Osaka entrance. An artificial hillside conceals the showbuilding from the hub.
ISLE OF BERK
While the available art does not indicate the towering rock spires that the define the island in the movies, in this plan, upon emerging from the Portal into the land, you would to see the two carved statues on the water in the foreground framing the main spire on the far side, beyond the viking ships and village, as in the artwork below:
The building on which I've placed the main spire is a question mark. The footprint of the building and the existence of only one other eatery of any size near the Splash Battle would indicate that this facility has to be a major indoor dining venue, which is what I've labeled. However, there are rumors this is some kind of simulator ride, such as the vertical 4-bay simulator as seen in the above art. This might account for the small footprint and give a need for the tall rockwork spire I've included, but likely wishful thinking.
The land has an assortment of other attractions: a skyfly, a splash battle, an explore zone, and a coaster. At the bottom of the land, I added as second landmark spire (and other smaller ones) atop the large theater building that supposedly will house a headliner show featuring giant puppet dragons & special FX.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
Rumors from site OrlandoParkStop suggest plans are already in flux from the original ones they first presented. So it will be interesting to revisit this drawing when construction is at a midpoint and the opening day menu is set in stone. Regarding my filling in the large expansion pads... that will be also be a future effort. Some vague IP lands have occurred to me (LotR, Zelda, Kung Fu Panda, etc.) and I have seen others' suggestions (Jurassic World, Classic Universal, Pokemon, Illumination, etc.). I encourage readers to imagine & draw their own expansions.
11 comments:
This looks amazing, hey are u also planning for some expansion ideas for Epic Universe too. & also what other projects are you thinking of next on Ideal Buildout
Thanks. I haven't thought too deeply about the expansion lands yet. The planned park presents a lot by itself.
i knew you'll have an plan somewhere down the road, by the way is the book still coming or is it too late now?
Love this design. Some ideas for your next project you should do predictions of what Epcot and Walt Disney Studios will look like once they finish their overhauls. Also you could add details to what they could add to them later.
Your Epic Universe Park looks epic! Would you consider doing other non Disney Parks in the future? I think it would be cool to see what you could do with a whole Super Nintendo World theme park or how you would do a Warner Bros theme park. I'm not a huge Sea World fan but I would be interested in seeing how you would do a marine animal park.
Love your designs. Would be interested to see your take on a dream Universal park, like you did with your Disney megapark.
Also, just wanted to know a couple things for the HP area that you mentioned. New York is not featured in the Universal parks yet. there is just London/Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. Also, the Paris area makes sense at the second movie had it's own Wizarding land in Paris like Diagon Alley called Place Cachee shown that could be the basis for this land.
I'll Let you know if I get any insider info as I work for Universal and have access to the Creative Dept (and I think one of the leads on the Wizarding World 3's design crew).
I am stoked to see this is your next epic project (no pun intended!). I surely hope the broom simulator (which current rumors hold would be over in UO replacing Fear Factor) is NOT a Ministry of Magic flythrough. Any fan of the HP series knows that there's a ton of potential to explore the Ministry of Magic with the 12 doors rotunda (although this will be set in Paris and not in the 90s with Harry Potter).
I am hoping that with the expansion pads and just the general format for this park, that Pokemon will actually take up the expansion pad over by Nintendo as it will fit better in this park (IMO).
I was under the impression that the way this park is built, the main hub is going to be kindof like CityWalk and for the most part, basically free to access; however (using the bands that are part of Volcano Bay), the "lands" will be where the actual gates to the park reside. This will help restrict flow and upsell tickets for the immersive experiences, while also allowing for more people to experience the central hub as a minipark option for budget friendly needs. That means that the main gateway is basically just the security checkpoint. I could also be assuming way too much from this, but it's a cool concoction to challenge typical hub-n-spoke layouts.
Finally, the space that is owned by Universal is actually FAR BIGGER than the space of Epic Universe, which brings me to think either A), Epic Universe has room to grow four miniparks and not just lands; or B) there's another full fledged park on the far horizon. In your layout, it would appear that you took up some of this excess plot of land to add a fifth miniland next to the galactic coaster, and I'm intrigued to see your idea to fill out that land's theme.
ok cool & another question i want to asked u @SWW, what other projects are you thinking of next on Ideal Buildout after you do Epic Universe
There isn't a Harry Potter New York area but there is a generic New York area in the original park.
Thanks for commenting.
The pinchpoint access to each land supports the model you've mentioned - where each land is an independently-ticked gate. That is quite a departure from the norm so I'd be surprised if it happens.
Would love to see your concept for the defunct Hard Rock Park.
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