Building a Dream: The Art of Disney Architecture [Hardcover]

Beth Dunlop (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1996

From fairy-tale castles to extraordinary buildings designed by the world's most distinguished architects, The Walt Disney Company has created exciting and influential architecture. The result, beautiful illustrated in this book is "architecture with a plot", a new approach to designing buildings.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Disney is not just for kids. Over the past 10 years, the Walt Disney Company's chief executive, Michael Eisner, has commissioned some of the most renowned contemporary architects--Robert Venturi, Robert A. M. Stern, Arata Isozaki, Frank Gehry, Aldo Rossi, and Michael Graves among them--to design important buildings for the company. In the process, Disney has set new standards for postmodern architecture and has become one of its leading patrons anywhere in the world. The resulting projects, which include quirky, fantastic theme parks, hotels, resorts, movie studios, and offices, are evidence of how Disney's long-standing use of popular, often surreal, imagery and iconography has been absorbed into the architects' styles. This stunning volume offers original architectural drawings and superb color photographs of the projects alongside an expertly written text that incorporates extensive interviews with the architects and executives involved.

From Library Journal

Dunlop's (Aquitectonica, A.I.A., 1991) loving look at the constructed world of Disney begins with an elegant foreword by noted architectural professor and critic Vincent Scully. In the main survey, Dunlop brings fresh eyes and an infectious enthusiasm for the quality of the buildings and designs that make up the original Disneyland, Disney World, and EuroDisney. The visuals and text work very well together as Dunlop unites Disney's objectives for its buildings with the imagination of its architects in carrying out those goals. One frustration is the choice to use period black-and-white images of varying quality to depict much of Disneyland in Anaheim while the Orlando and Paris parks are presented in lush and perfect color. This book is a serious and orderly (but never somber) look at the architecture of whimsy and the often cockeyed world of cartoons brought to three-dimensional life. Recommended for all collections.?David Bryant, New Canaan P.L., Ct.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Harry N Abrams; First Edition edition (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810931427
• ISBN-13: 978-0810931428
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #398,691 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Should be Eisner/Disney Architecture, September 30, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Building a Dream: The Art of Disney Architecture (Hardcover)

This book is about Michael Eisner's patronage of big namearchitects 1985-1995. There's lots about Michael Graves, RobertA. M. Stern, Gehry, Gwathmey and that ilk. If you think this slaphappy stuff is architecture, this is a fine book about it. As an architect for Disney 1975-1983, I have a huge admiration for, say, Bill Martin, Dave Ott and Glenn Durflinger's Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World. You won't find much about that kind of Disney architecture in this book. Ms. Dunlop is the architecture critic for the Miami Herald and based on her acknowledgements, she didn't talk to anyone who actually knew anything about Disney architecture. There are a few pages on Disneyland and even Kem Weber's utopian design for the Disney Studio (1939), but Dunlop gets all breathless only about the Venturi inspired junk that Eisner pays top dollar for these days. Even the great work they are doing today, such as Indiana Jones or the Twilight Zone hotel aren't treated with any interest. It's just sad that one of the few books on the subject was written by someone who doesn't appreciate it.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A non park-architecture focused book, March 24, 2003

By 

R. Ellis (Florida USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Building a Dream: The Art of Disney Architecture (Hardcover)

I thought that the authors focus on non-park buildings was a refreshing break from other books. The ability to design the ideas of Walt Disney into the buildings used by the company itself, not just the guests, is a very interesting topic often overlooked by other authors. The architecture found in the parks is also facinating but I feel that this book focuses on the more overlooked buildings. I found the authors views on these buildings interesting and well thought out. The photographs are very impressive and often are of areas that the average guest would not be able to access. Overall, I think that anyone interested in understanding Disney as a company and how they have worked the 'Magic' into every aspect of these buildings will enjoy this book.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book about Disney-Architecture, February 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Building a Dream: The Art of Disney Architecture (Hardcover)

All I can say is that this one is an absolute great book for all the people who are interested in Disney-Architecture. I have read this one for several times now an I always find new facts when I read it again! Highly recommended!