I want to like Avenger's Campus at DCA. And with two more attractions coming, I want to be excited. So I've been wondering "what is Avenger's Campus missing?" that would make me fall in love with this land? And for the purposes of this post, I don't mean Attractions, Retail, or Restaurants. I mean what does the land need to better tell its story and feel like an actual PLACE, rather than an abstract concept.
I came up with a couple of ideas to share, but first I want to say that one of the coolest things Imagineering has done is Pleasure Island at Walt Disney World. It got watered down over the years and ultimately replaced with Disney Springs, but the original incarnation of an old industrial district full of nightclubs was so creative. The Imagineers came up with a detailed backstory of Merriweather Adam Pleasure and his family and the various industries they were in. Every building made sense as part of the elaborate backstory.
Well, maybe Imagineering has done this when creating Avenger's Campus...but if so, it doesn't come through enough. Most significantly, this campus supposedly was the former site of Stark Industries, which is why you see Stark logos scattered -- you might say "spammed" -- all over the land, and there's a map that depicts the former layout of Stark's facility:
And the buildings in the land (aside from Mission: Breakout) are either in an oft-criticized generic "modern" corporate campus style (the "Irvine Office Park aesthetic") or an old, distressed brick industrial style. The latter are the remnants of Stark Industries and feel more theme-park-ish to me.
But the story reason for mixing these disparate styles is likely to escape nearly all guests, even Marvel fans, unless they're thinking deeply about the design choices. It's cool and clever, but could be "read" as random and weird. Meanwhile, the Stark signs everywhere -- to me -- feel like a "cheap" and repetitive effort to explain the old stuff. (It's a lot of signs!)
What I think is missing, in both telling the Stark Industries story, but also in making the land feel more lived in and understandable are props -- so Imagineering is not just relying on the over-use of graphics. This falls into the "show it, don't say it" principle of design, where the signs keep "saying it" but there are too few props "showing it."
Also, setting aside the Ancient Sanctum -- which doesn't have a purpose nowadays -- the "campus" is missing some fantasy -- I mean, this is all based on comic books, right? The modern architecture and brick warehouses are very "every day" and not very fantastical. Some props could really help take us out of the every day mindset and fall into the fantasy.
Lastly, Stark Industries has a rich history going back to the 1930s, and I think there was a missed opportunity to use Stark Industries' history as a transition from both Carthay Circle/Buena Vista St. and Cars Land, which both evoke a 1930s-1950s time period, the golden age of Stark Industries.
So, for the purpose of this post I'm going to propose two props, but these are just examples of the kind of "set dressing" this land could use to make its history come to life and, frankly, make it more Disney-quality. By that I mean, think about how real and "lived in" Animal Kingdom's lands are. Shouldn't Avenger's Campus have this much texture and richness to tell its story?
The first prop would be located under the Stark Motors sign on the brick wall near the entry, not far from Carthay Circle and Cars Land. Where the bushes are, they could locate an old overgrown industrial outbuilding garage, and visible in the shed would be a Stark race car from the 1930s-1950s. It would make sense that Howard Stark built race cars, that was common for automakers to do then (Ferarri, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes...). It was an opportunity for auto companies to show off their engineering prowess. But if it was conveyed that Howard Stark raced the car himself (have his name beside the cockpit), it could establish Howard Stark as a charismatic risk-taking "playboy." This starts to tell the story as you enter the land...
The second prop concept is located deeper in the land, and deeper in the timeline history of Stark Industries -- when it had become a serious defense contractor and pushing scientific and technological boundaries. This prop more specifically adds fantasy to the land, and it's a fun call-back to the rocket in Tomorrowland, which was sponsored by TWA and later McDonnell Douglas, the kind of industrial defense contractor that Stark Industries was modeled after (and Howard Stark is essentially a Howard Hughes, owner of TWA...the link is great in multiple ways). This would be an old, aging rocket left on the industrial site...
These two props are examples, but if you look at the map of Stark Industries posted above, it's not hard to imagine many legacy props that would give this land more richness and fantasy, and just explain it better. And the props would catch guest's attention -- as there's a lot of unhelpful focus on the architectures, especially the generic modern architecture. Hope you enjoyed and would love to hear any other ideas for what Avenger's Campus is missing to better tell its story.
I came up with a couple of ideas to share, but first I want to say that one of the coolest things Imagineering has done is Pleasure Island at Walt Disney World. It got watered down over the years and ultimately replaced with Disney Springs, but the original incarnation of an old industrial district full of nightclubs was so creative. The Imagineers came up with a detailed backstory of Merriweather Adam Pleasure and his family and the various industries they were in. Every building made sense as part of the elaborate backstory.
Well, maybe Imagineering has done this when creating Avenger's Campus...but if so, it doesn't come through enough. Most significantly, this campus supposedly was the former site of Stark Industries, which is why you see Stark logos scattered -- you might say "spammed" -- all over the land, and there's a map that depicts the former layout of Stark's facility:
And the buildings in the land (aside from Mission: Breakout) are either in an oft-criticized generic "modern" corporate campus style (the "Irvine Office Park aesthetic") or an old, distressed brick industrial style. The latter are the remnants of Stark Industries and feel more theme-park-ish to me.
But the story reason for mixing these disparate styles is likely to escape nearly all guests, even Marvel fans, unless they're thinking deeply about the design choices. It's cool and clever, but could be "read" as random and weird. Meanwhile, the Stark signs everywhere -- to me -- feel like a "cheap" and repetitive effort to explain the old stuff. (It's a lot of signs!)
What I think is missing, in both telling the Stark Industries story, but also in making the land feel more lived in and understandable are props -- so Imagineering is not just relying on the over-use of graphics. This falls into the "show it, don't say it" principle of design, where the signs keep "saying it" but there are too few props "showing it."
Also, setting aside the Ancient Sanctum -- which doesn't have a purpose nowadays -- the "campus" is missing some fantasy -- I mean, this is all based on comic books, right? The modern architecture and brick warehouses are very "every day" and not very fantastical. Some props could really help take us out of the every day mindset and fall into the fantasy.
Lastly, Stark Industries has a rich history going back to the 1930s, and I think there was a missed opportunity to use Stark Industries' history as a transition from both Carthay Circle/Buena Vista St. and Cars Land, which both evoke a 1930s-1950s time period, the golden age of Stark Industries.
So, for the purpose of this post I'm going to propose two props, but these are just examples of the kind of "set dressing" this land could use to make its history come to life and, frankly, make it more Disney-quality. By that I mean, think about how real and "lived in" Animal Kingdom's lands are. Shouldn't Avenger's Campus have this much texture and richness to tell its story?
The first prop would be located under the Stark Motors sign on the brick wall near the entry, not far from Carthay Circle and Cars Land. Where the bushes are, they could locate an old overgrown industrial outbuilding garage, and visible in the shed would be a Stark race car from the 1930s-1950s. It would make sense that Howard Stark built race cars, that was common for automakers to do then (Ferarri, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes...). It was an opportunity for auto companies to show off their engineering prowess. But if it was conveyed that Howard Stark raced the car himself (have his name beside the cockpit), it could establish Howard Stark as a charismatic risk-taking "playboy." This starts to tell the story as you enter the land...
The second prop concept is located deeper in the land, and deeper in the timeline history of Stark Industries -- when it had become a serious defense contractor and pushing scientific and technological boundaries. This prop more specifically adds fantasy to the land, and it's a fun call-back to the rocket in Tomorrowland, which was sponsored by TWA and later McDonnell Douglas, the kind of industrial defense contractor that Stark Industries was modeled after (and Howard Stark is essentially a Howard Hughes, owner of TWA...the link is great in multiple ways). This would be an old, aging rocket left on the industrial site...
These two props are examples, but if you look at the map of Stark Industries posted above, it's not hard to imagine many legacy props that would give this land more richness and fantasy, and just explain it better. And the props would catch guest's attention -- as there's a lot of unhelpful focus on the architectures, especially the generic modern architecture. Hope you enjoyed and would love to hear any other ideas for what Avenger's Campus is missing to better tell its story.
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