Storyland Studios, the global experience design and strategy firm composed of former Walt Disney Imagineering, Universal Creative and Merlin Entertainments alumni with offices and staff across the U.S. and Europe, recently expanded its architectural capabilities by assembling and enhancing a team of expert discipline leaders with extensive professional experience in the world’s top architecture, themed entertainment, leisure, hospitality and entertainment properties.
By offering architectural, conceptual and creative solutions, Storyland is capable of taking projects from the blue sky phase all the way through to construction administration and grand opening. The firm’s recent growth has enabled it to engage with major global projects involving some of the world’s most well-known IPs.
“Our in-house artists and designers are some of the best in the world, and the proof is in the pudding,” says architect and master planner Jeff Damron, Storyland’s new Senior Vice President Master Planning & Design. “Our international work is off the charts right now, and we’re getting calls left and right for people wanting to experience what Storyland can offer.”
Spearheaded by Founder and Chief Creative Officer Mel McGowan, Storyland’s Creative Team is made up of two divisions. The Project Design team is now led by Damron, former Associate Vice President of Themed Entertainment and Leisure at AECOM. Storyland’s Creative Development team is now led by Christian Hope, Senior Vice President Creative Development at Storyland, former VP Design & Creative Development at Paramount and a former Walt Disney Imagineer.
Storyland’s in-house architects translate the Creative Development team’s artistic renderings into schematic designs and construction documentation, turning creative concepts into story-driven spatial experiences. Damron says the team’s structure ensures that an architect is involved in the process from start to finish.
“These architects and artists have grown up with storytelling as their first language,” says McGowan. “Jeff and Christian are the left brain and right brain. It’s never a one-man show. You need that kind of complementary relationship.
“Jeff is involved with every project just as early as Christian because of his experience as a master planner. He’s doing the very first pencil to paper sketches, and he understands the complexity and discipline it takes to orchestrate large-scale projects.”
In addition to architecture and master planning, Storyland recently brought its landscape architecture practice in-house. The firm welcomed Walt Disney Imagineering alum Rob Moffat as Director of Landscape and Area Development in early 2024. Storyland has historically offered landscape architecture as part of its master plans, working alongside external partners, including Rob’s old firm, ima+design, for over 20 years.
“Landscape architecture is the pre- and post-show of any environment,” says Moffat. “It sets the mood, the emotions, the feelings. Everything you’re going to experience begins in the landscape and area development.”
According to Kevin Blakeney, Storyland’s new Director of Master Planning and an alum of Walt Disney Imagineering and Universal Creative, this multidisciplinary team structure also allows for greater continuity throughout all project stages, particularly since complex projects are capable of remaining in-house.
“You have all that learned history that you’re not losing throughout the process as you trade off teams,” Blakeney says.
McGowan, formerly of the Walt Disney Company, says the structure of Storyland’s Creative Team was originally inspired by the synergy and ethos of WED Enterprises, now known as Walt Disney Imagineering.
“WED Enterprises was Walt’s happy place, where you have that cross-fertilization of all the different disciplines represented,” McGowan says. “It has that familial culture, but also a rich diversity. In terms of spatial storytelling, you need that motley crew of artists, architects, artisans, and accountants.”
Hope says Storyland’s team dynamic resembles his early days with Walt Disney Imagineering.
“Imagineering, to me, was like the little light that moths are attracted to, that we all moved toward,” says Hope. “That ethos has been transposed into this company now.”
Many of Storyland’s discipline leaders have been connected as colleagues and friends over the decades, too, enhancing the collaborative environment.
“It has been a decades-long interaction, and we’re doing it in a very intentional way,” Damron says. “It’s why people are talking a lot about Storyland and what our possibilities are.”
