Britten Works Last-Minute Magic for Disney and Cirque du Soleil
The scene
Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, hires Britten to wrap its multi-story Cirque du Soleil Theater with an outdoor banner system heralding the legendary performance troupe’s new show. To satisfy Disney’s only caveat — no drilling into the steel-skinned building — Britten presents plans to install the building wraps using a series of powerful magnets that can withstand the hurricane=force winds that often hit Florida without much warning.
The Snare
Upon arriving at the theater to install the building wrap, Britten finds that, rather than steel, the outside of the theater is covered in fiberglass made to look like steel (man, those folks at Disney are good!) Time for “plan B” … and fast.
Britten in action
The Britten installation team holds a quick brainstorming session and an on-the-spot solution is born for engineering a new building wrap: encase the theater in a web of steel cabling from which the banners can be hung.
Measurements are taken. Plans are drawn up. Materials are gathered. After installing the support beams, Britten brings in a specialized team of rappellers, who take their ropes up to the building’s roof and begin scaling down its sides assembling the massive web of cables.
Without missing a beat, the theater is w rapped with more than a dozen 35' x 35' outdoor banners featuring Cirque du Soleil performers. And the teams from Disney and Cirque du Soleil agree that the performance that took place outside the theater is every bit as magical as the performance happening inside.
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