Disney’s All-Star and Pop Century Resorts
Arquitectonica master planned and designed a themed resort at Walt Disney World that takes icons of popular culture and sports and blows them up as larger-than-life architectural accents.
The Disney All-Star Resort is a 300-acre, 5,760-room themed resort hotel which includes three separate villages of 1,920 rooms, each with 10 192-room hotels a reception/commercial building, restaurants and attendant resort facilities. The three resorts are themed as the All-Star Sports Resort, the All-Star Music Resort and the All-Star Movies Resort. Monumental icons such as a three-story football helmet, tennis rackets or surfboards, Western boots, saxophones and electric guitars are images of popular culture.
Due to wetlands careful preservation and incorporation of the environment was a major objective in the overall planning process. The various buildings and associated parking fields were arranged to maintain a natural landscape buffer to the wetlands while maximizing parking efficiency and minimizing distances for guests.
With 2,880 rooms, Pop Century celebrates the Classic Years of the 20th century, from the 1950s through the 1990s. Phase two of the project added an additional 2,880 rooms in celebration of the Legendary Years, the 1900s through the 1940s. The resort is bright and colorful, with giant icons, ranging from a 65′ high bowling pin and a 40′ tabletop jukebox to a 41′ high Rubik’s Cube, add fun to a rather traditional four-story motel. Many cherished characters of past Disney animated films are featured a larger-than-life statues. Popular icons of each decade of the twentieth century will be represented. For instance, Lady and the Tramp will be part of many 50s American icons, and Roger Rabbit will take his place among giant icons of the 80s.
The resorts include a food court, a pool bar, pizza delivery to your room, even convenient laundry facilities.
The firm worked with in-house designers at Walt Disney Imagineering to create these icons that are designed to break up the linear lines of the architecture.
