WDI President Barbara Bouza is Resigning

[HauntedPirate]

Was just searching for Barbara Bouza and found this snippet on her take on architectural style. If she would have given me that during the application interview for Head of WDI I would have ended the interview prematurely.

Yep. "Thank you for your time, we're done here." Red flags galore in her "answer".

Bob - "Plain buildings? YOU'RE HIRED!!!"

 

[ToTBellHop]

I stayed up until 3 am compiling a list of her greatest accomplishments:

 

[HauntedPirate]

I stayed up until 3 am compiling a list of her greatest accomplishments:

View attachment 772434

I'd like to thank you personally for the hours and hours of research you did to produce a thorough and accurate report like that. This is the kind of research and reporting that is so difficult to find these days.

 

[fgmnt]

Here, a machine will read it for you:

Here's a summary of the article "President of Imagineering Leaving Disney" by Tom Bricker, with key points and analysis:

Key Points

• Barbara Bouza is leaving her post as President of Walt Disney Imagineering. She joined Disney in 2020.
• Projects completed during Bouza's time at Disney: Avengers Campus, Disney Wish, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, TRON: Lightcycle Run, expansions at international parks.
• Bouza's background: She previously worked at the architecture firm Gensler.
• Bruce Vaughn likely to become the new President of Imagineering. He previously led Imagineering and returned to the company in 2023.

Commentary and Analysis

• Bouza's legacy is unclear. The projects attributed to her tenure were likely initiated before her arrival.
• Imagineering's output is influenced by management decisions. Even talented Imagineers have their work limited by what Disney Parks management greenlights. This is compared to a restaurant where a talented chef is still constrained by the guest's order.
• Bruce Vaughn's return is a positive sign. He has a long history with Imagineering and a track record of successful projects. His experience as a project manager could address budget and scheduling issues that have plagued Imagineering in recent years.
• Potential for Imagineering resurgence. The return of Vaughn and possibly other notable Imagineers hints at a new development cycle for the domestic Disney Parks.

Overall, the article suggests a changing of the guard at Walt Disney Imagineering, with a potential shift in priorities and a hopeful outlook for the future of Disney's theme park experiences.

-Gemini AI

Websites engage in SEO to beat algorithms, machine learning software from the same class of people making the SEO algorithm let you bypass all of the SEO fluff. Lovely.

 

[monothingie]

I stayed up until 3 am compiling a list of her greatest accomplishments:

View attachment 772434

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Was just searching for Barbara Bouza and found this snippet on her take on architectural style. If she would have given me that during the application interview for Head of WDI I would have ended the interview prematurely.

I mean, that's not an outrageous answer. "Clean design" is not antithetical to Disney. Clean in this case doesn't necessarily mean without ornament or detail, it means without extraneous business that muddies the intention. The example she gives is specifically because of its empasis on guest-facing function and the way the building it is reflective of its purpose. That's not the worst way to design a theme park. Most of the successful architecture in the parks falls in this category.

In fact, someone in the Bruce Vaughn thread has been complaining for pages about how Mission: Breakout's design is overwhelmed with ornament to the point that it both fails to communicate its purpose clearly and is aesthetically ugly, which basically everyone agrees on. Greater clarity in that design, even if it meant less "stuff", would likely have been super helpful towards improving that part of the park.

 

[Cliff]

Can anybody in this forum imagine themselves writing a job exit letter like this? Would you be bragging all about your incredible contributions to "humanity" and YOUR future impact on "the world"...and blah,..blah,...and so forth?

I bet nobody here would write anything like this. Grounded people just don't do that.

I still wonder why she was fired?

 

[lazyboy97o]

I mean, that's not an outrageous answer. "Clean design" is not antithetical to Disney. Clean in this case doesn't necessarily mean without ornament or detail, it means without extraneous business that muddies the intention. The example she gives is specifically because of its empasis on guest-facing function and the way the building it is reflective of its purpose. That's not the worst way to design a theme park. Most of the successful architecture in the parks falls in this category.

In fact, someone in the Bruce Vaughn thread has been complaining for pages about how Mission: Breakout's design is overwhelmed with ornament to the point that it both fails to communicate its purpose clearly and is aesthetically ugly, which basically everyone agrees on. Greater clarity in that design, even if it meant less "stuff", would likely have been super helpful towards improving that part of the park.

Heck “form [ever] follows function” was said by a guy rather famous for his ornamentation. And in his writings he makes it clear that he considers the emotion of a space to be a very important function.

Traditional Beaux-Arts design, some of the most ornamented of ornamented architected, was very much focused on the parti, the simple main idea behind the design of a building that can be expressed as a diagram.

 

[SirLink]

I stayed up until 3 am compiling a list of her greatest accomplishments:

View attachment 772434

You forgot that time when Disney was almost going to make a retirement community in the desert.

 

[Jambo Dad]

You forgot that time when Disney was almost going to make a retirement community in the desert.

Inspired by Disney’s legendary storytelling.

 

[SirLink]

Inspired by Disney’s legendary storytelling.

... of forgetting about their own stories and putting them in a vault aka retirement

 

[Bocabear]

Did she actually design stuff or just manage the team? as in, assign schedules etc. It does feel like Disney architecture has been going through an era of forgetting all the reasons that people love Disney....by making everything look usual...not special, the opposite of storytelling...unless of course, the story is "Everyone Loves Marriott"...
Even the new half-building in World Celebration does not live up to the building they tore down...it just has panels on it that are a nod to Spaceship Earth, but certainly not architecturally interesting...considering she is an architect.... Seems like that particular building, as a replacement for the central heart of EPCOT should have been something more special...

 

[Raineman]

If this is how she envisioned bringing about humanity’s future she is more dystopian than Skynet.

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What do you mean? That is a perfect example of a traditional concrete South Pacific hotel tower, and fits beautifully with the theming of the rest of the Poly. She should be lauded for her vision and creativity. /s

 

[denyuntilcaught]

Bouza's background: She previously worked at the architecture firm Gensler.

Well that explains it. They make lovely office buildings.