The project was conceived by the Boston University BUild the Magic Team and created for the 2026 Walt Disney Imagineering’s Imaginations Design Competition
This project is the sole property of Walt Disney Imagineering and all rights to use these ideas are exclusive to Walt Disney Imagineering.
The competition is a way for students and recent graduates to showcase their talents and for Walt Disney Imagineering to identify new talent
The following project was developed with
Karina Gaitan and Isabella Santarpia
Karina Gaitan and Isabella Santarpia
In the early phases of development I acted as project manager by creating the project tracker, scheduling meetings, doing research, facilitating discussions, defining research strategy, arranging for us to meet industry and campus professionals, and taking care of logistics. Later, I served as producer for the project by gathering/assembling deliverables, providing feedback, and filling in gaps so teammates could focus on their specialties. I also designed the experiences and wrote the narrative.
Concept Art by Karina Gaitan
Once we learned we were in the finals I went heavy on feasibility research on every topic I could think of, including local tree ordinances, ADA guidelines, building codes, structural justifications, etc. I also recreated the space in Blender using Karina's orthographic overhead drawing and maps of the area to get final dimensions and determine capacity.
I added this special effect to the basement space to keep it from feeling too stale. We used the existing lighting of the space and reflected it off tinsel that's gently agitated by the heating/cooling airflow of the space-- no extra energy required to power the effect!
