Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Shanghaî Disneyland : Concept-Art of a "Main Street" That Never Was



Someone named Fukuhomu posted on Twitter this very interesting rendering done in 2008 by Imagineer Luc Mayrand. Luc Mayrand is VP, Creative Portfolio Executive for Hong Kong and Shanghai Disney Resorts at Walt Disney Imagineering as well as Executive Creative Director/ Senior Show Producer at WDI since 1999. And this rendering is supposed to show an early concept for a “Main Street” or at least the “entrance street” of Shanghaî Disneyland! 

It would have been entirely covered by a canopy like at Tokyo Disneyland World Bazaar, it don't mean that it would have looked like a covered regular Main Street U.S.A - probably not - but in this concept SDL entrance street was definitely under a canopy. The castle design too doesn’t look the same than it is now, the lands are not located at the same place, etc, so in two words: everything on this SDL artwork looks different than it is now.

On the picture below, Luc Mayrand ( left ) stands with Catherynne jean ( right ) at SDL Treasure Cove for a November 2015 Shanghai Daily article that you can read HERE.




This covered entrance street reminds me this other early concept for SDL entrance and “Main Street” that was shown by Bob Iger in 2013 or 14 during a presentation, and which seems inspired by Luc Mayrand rendering.


Have look also at this interview of Luc Mayrand filmed three years ago, talking about projecting oneself in the future to design new products for today, the importance of team work, prototyping, iterating and developing a point of view.


New Product Design at Disney Imagineering - YULBCN 2013 from Mosaic HEC on Vimeo.

Pictures: copyright Disney

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the post. The early concept of the park looks very different than the usual Disneylands'maps but seems great ! This entrance street would be amazing for another Disney park, but I think they have done the right choice with Mickey Avenue. And looks like the castle was supposed to be the one of The Little Mermaid.