Imagineering goes behind the walls at Piston Peak, Monstropolis and Tropical Americas

By ·

The newest episode of Walt Disney Imagineering's We Call It Imagineering series takes cameras inside four Walt Disney World construction projects: a second balloon test at the Piston Peak National Park site in Magic Kingdom, facade work at Monstropolis, the two-year sample yard for Tropical Americas, and mixed-reality headsets in use at Disney's Lakeshore Lodge.

Imagineering goes behind the walls at Piston Peak, Monstropolis and Tropical Americas

Walt Disney Imagineering has taken its cameras behind the construction walls at four Walt Disney World projects at once. The newest episode of We Call It Imagineering, released August 27, goes inside facade work at Monstropolis at Disney's Hollywood Studios, the sample yard for Tropical Americas at Disney's Animal Kingdom, a balloon test at the Piston Peak National Park site in Magic Kingdom, and the mixed-reality tools being used to build Disney's Lakeshore Lodge.

Photo from Disney Parks's post (1)
A diverse group of people, including many children, are gathered inside a modern building with large windows, looking out at a fireworks display over a body of water with a city skyline in the distance.
The newest episode of Walt Disney Imagineering's We Call It Imagineering series takes cameras inside four Walt Disney World construction projects: a second balloon test at the Piston Peak National Park site in Magic Kingdom, facade work at Monstropolis, the two-year sample yard for Tropical Americas, and mixed-reality headsets in use at Disney's Lakeshore Lodge.
The newest episode of Walt Disney Imagineering's We Call It Imagineering series takes cameras inside four Walt Disney World construction projects: a second balloon test at the Piston Peak National Park site in Magic Kingdom, facade work at Monstropolis, the two-year sample yard for Tropical Americas, and mixed-reality headsets in use at Disney's Lakeshore Lodge. Photo: disneyparksblog.com
Imagineering goes behind the walls at Piston Peak, Monstropolis and Tropical Americas

The series is Imagineering's own YouTube documentary strand, modelled on the behind-the-scenes television specials Walt Disney used to introduce Disneyland to America in the 1950s. Six episodes in, it has covered Audio-Animatronics, music, ride engineering, castles and live entertainment. This one is about architecture, and it is the most Florida-heavy instalment yet.

A detailed miniature paper and cardboard model of a multi-colored house with paper palm trees and landscape features is illuminated by bright lights.
A detailed miniature paper and cardboard model of a multi-colored house with paper palm trees and landscape features is illuminated by bright lights. Still from the source video
A grandmother in a pink shirt and sunglasses holds hands with a young girl in a white shirt and patterned leggings as they walk along a red path next to a pink building with white spiral columns.
A grandmother in a pink shirt and sunglasses holds hands with a young girl in a white shirt and patterned leggings as they walk along a red path next to a pink building with white spiral columns. Still from the source video
A colorful illustration depicts a bustling street scene with various characters and structures under a warm-hued sky.
A colorful illustration depicts a bustling street scene with various characters and structures under a warm-hued sky. Still from the source video
A weathered and textured wall, partially obscured by another textured surface, stands in what appears to be an outdoor setting.
A weathered and textured wall, partially obscured by another textured surface, stands in what appears to be an outdoor setting. Still from the source video
A textured wall adorned with cut plastic bottle bottoms, painted white, with dirt and grass visible at the bottom.
A textured wall adorned with cut plastic bottle bottoms, painted white, with dirt and grass visible at the bottom. Still from the source video
A sign for "Disney Jr.
A sign for "Disney Jr. Still from the source video
A close-up, low-angle shot shows a brown, textured concrete surface with a seam running down the middle right side of the frame.
A close-up, low-angle shot shows a brown, textured concrete surface with a seam running down the middle right side of the frame. Still from the source video
A pathway bordered by lush green foliage and trees, with a large, gnarled tree trunk on the right and an artificial rock formation in the background.
A pathway bordered by lush green foliage and trees, with a large, gnarled tree trunk on the right and an artificial rock formation in the background. Still from the source video
Tree roots and green moss cover a wall, with some bright green leaves visible at the bottom.
Tree roots and green moss cover a wall, with some bright green leaves visible at the bottom. Still from the source video

Balloons the size of Lightning McQueen over Frontierland

The Piston Peak National Park segment is the most concrete construction update in the episode. Imagineers describe clearing the Frontierland site and "prepping it to go vertical," then flying a balloon test to check the land's height against the rest of Magic Kingdom's skyline.

A green train with a man in the cab is on tracks in front of a large white building with spires, partially obscured by green trees, under a cloudy sky.
A green train with a man in the cab is on tracks in front of a large white building with spires, partially obscured by green trees, under a cloudy sky. Photo: Evan Wohrman via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

A balloon test means floating markers at the planned high-point elevations of each structure and scattering Imagineers around the park to judge sight lines from every angle. The team says these balloons are roughly the size of Lightning McQueen, big enough to read from across the park. The neighbours matter here: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Tiana's Bayou Adventure sit right beside the plot.

A light green building with a large "Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy" sign is visible, with a tall palm tree on the right side and several people walking below.
A light green building with a large "Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy" sign is visible, with a tall palm tree on the right side and several people walking below. Photo: Wacky Windjammer via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
"We did this same balloon test a year ago and we realized some of our elevations were a little too high."

That is the useful detail for anyone tracking the project. A first balloon test a year ago sent the designs back for revision, and this second test confirmed the reworked heights are, in the team's words, right on target. Sight-line discipline is why Magic Kingdom's lands feel sealed off from one another.

Monstropolis takes shape behind the scaffolding at Hollywood Studios

At Disney's Hollywood Studios, senior creative director Jennifer Cerna and executive creative director Scott Mallet walk the Monstropolis site, which is currently, as Cerna puts it, mostly scaffolding with the architecture rising behind it.

An animated scene depicts various monsters on a stage, some performing and others watching, with a city skyline and other fantastical elements in the background.
An animated scene depicts various monsters on a stage, some performing and others watching, with a city skyline and other fantastical elements in the background. Photo: variety.com

The land's spine will be a main street called Dark Avenue, running toward the Monsters, Inc. factory, with the Harryhausen's facade already visible in silhouette. The design logic is that a real city accretes over time, so the team layered Victorian-era and industrial-era architecture and then bent each period toward something monstrous. Familiar addresses from the film, rebuilt with the proportions slightly wrong on purpose.

Architecture is only part of it. The team says graphics, a music bed and even piped-in scents are being designed for the land alongside the buildings.

Two years of test walls before Tropical Americas is built

The Tropical Americas segment is filmed in a sample yard at Disney's Animal Kingdom, a mock-up lot where exterior and interior finishes, carved plaster and hardscape are built full size and left outside to be judged.

We Call It Imagineering
We Call It Imagineering Photo: disneyparksblog.com

Imagineers say they spend close to two years testing colours, textures and material combinations before any of it is installed in the park, so that the finishes support the land's Encanto and Indiana Jones stories rather than fighting them. The tests are practical as well as artistic. Concrete mixes are checked so the colour will not visibly shift between a guest's visits, and textures are checked so they are not too rough for hands running along them.

Key Details

One Imagineer, on camera, decides the moss colour on a sample wall is wrong and says it will be adjusted, which is exactly the point of building the yard. Animal Kingdom is a harder park to hold a finish in than any other at Walt Disney World, because live planting is constantly growing over whatever Imagineering fixed in place.

Headsets on site at Disney's Lakeshore Lodge

The episode's most forward-looking Walt Disney World segment is at Disney's Lakeshore Lodge, the resort hotel under construction on Bay Lake. An Imagineering emerging-technologies team is on site with augmented and mixed-reality headsets, projecting the finished 3D model at full scale over the ground it will occupy.

A crowd of adults and children watch fireworks through large windows at night.
A crowd of adults and children watch fireworks through large windows at night. Photo: x.com

The hardware is off the shelf. The software is not. The team says the same approach lets them preview night lighting, test how a fireworks show would read over a castle, and try a different animatronic performance inside a space that already exists, decisions that used to wait for physical mock-ups.

Animation Courtyard, Pandora and the older tricks still in use

The architecture episode also revisits two existing Walt Disney World spaces. At the transformed Animation Courtyard at Disney's Hollywood Studios, the presenter points out that the area is built as a stand-in for the Burbank studio lot, layered with billboards of characters climbing out of their frames, 3D character sculpts, and a Hollywood Walk of Fame outside Studio Store where the characters have pressed hands, feet and signatures into the concrete.

A principal landscape designer then explains Pandora, The World of Avatar as the inverse of a castle park. Magic Kingdom's architecture pulls your eye down Main Street, U.S.A. toward a single icon. Animal Kingdom hides the destination instead, using tree canopies, forced-perspective planting and berms to erase the parking lots and back-of-house buildings just beyond the treeline.

The Disney Adventure episode, for the cruise side

Earlier in the series, the Setting Sail with Disney Cruise Line episode followed Imagineering and Disney Live Entertainment finishing the Disney Adventure. It was the first time Imagineers had to fit Disney stories into an existing hull rather than design a ship from the keel up, and the first Disney castle built at sea, the result of months of research into the Singapore market the ship sails from.

Disney Cruise Line traces back to the 1990s, when Disney Legend and former Imagineer Wing Chao was asked to design ships that read as classic, modern and unmistakably Disney. The episode notes the fleet is set to reach thirteen ships by 2031, with five in various stages of development.

An animated cruise ship sails on the water with four labeled sections: Adventure, Main Street, Discovery, and Fantasy.
An animated cruise ship sails on the water with four labeled sections: Adventure, Main Street, Discovery, and Fantasy. Still from the source video
A large cruise ship with red funnels and yellow lifeboats is docked next to a pier, with clear blue water and rocky shores in the foreground under a light blue sky.
A large cruise ship with red funnels and yellow lifeboats is docked next to a pier, with clear blue water and rocky shores in the foreground under a light blue sky. Still from the source video
A digitally projected screen displays a colorful landscape with trees and gardens, showing dimensions of 50 feet in width and 30 feet in height, above a bar area with stairs on either side.
A digitally projected screen displays a colorful landscape with trees and gardens, showing dimensions of 50 feet in width and 30 feet in height, above a bar area with stairs on either side. Still from the source video
A wide angle shot of the interior of a cruise ship with multiple levels of balconies overlooking an entertainment area with a large screen displaying a landscape scene.
A wide angle shot of the interior of a cruise ship with multiple levels of balconies overlooking an entertainment area with a large screen displaying a landscape scene. Still from the source video
A wide, slightly upward-angled shot shows a large, curved display screen depicting a vibrant, animated landscape with trees, hills, and a distant cityscape, surrounded by additional vertical screens on the sides and an architectural foreground with railings and decorative elements.
A wide, slightly upward-angled shot shows a large, curved display screen depicting a vibrant, animated landscape with trees, hills, and a distant cityscape, surrounded by additional vertical screens on the sides and an architectural foreground with railings and decorative elements. Still from the source video
A wide, distorted shot shows a theatrical stage with colorful screens and a large audience area, surrounded by multiple levels of balconies with windows, all under a high ceiling.
A wide, distorted shot shows a theatrical stage with colorful screens and a large audience area, surrounded by multiple levels of balconies with windows, all under a high ceiling. Still from the source video
A display case containing purple crystals is positioned in front of a white wall adorned with red and gray graffiti.
A display case containing purple crystals is positioned in front of a white wall adorned with red and gray graffiti. Still from the source video
Two men stand inside a restaurant with tables covered in white tablecloths and art pieces displayed on the walls.
Two men stand inside a restaurant with tables covered in white tablecloths and art pieces displayed on the walls. Still from the source video
A red rollercoaster track curves to the left in the foreground with fireworks illuminating the dark night sky in the background.
A red rollercoaster track curves to the left in the foreground with fireworks illuminating the dark night sky in the background. Still from the source video

Where to watch, and what the episode confirms

Every episode of We Call It Imagineering stays free on the Walt Disney Imagineering YouTube channel. Since February the series has also been on Disney+, though new episodes still premiere on YouTube first and are added to the streaming service later.

We Call It Imagineering
We Call It Imagineering Photo: disneyparksblog.com

For Walt Disney World guests, the concrete takeaways from the architecture episode are these. Piston Peak's site is cleared and about to go vertical, and its building heights have been revised once and re-verified against Magic Kingdom's skyline. Monstropolis has real structure behind the scaffolding, with Dark Avenue and the Harryhausen's facade already legible. Tropical Americas' finishes are still two years upstream of installation in a sample yard. No opening dates were given for any of the three.

Originally reported by disneyparksblog.com. GenieGrove rewrote this story; the original reporting is theirs.