“May the 4th be with you.” What started as pun warmly shared by fans has become a full-fledged Star Wars holiday: Star Wars Day, a special annual celebration of the galaxy far, far away.
To celebrate, we thought it would be fun to share about some behind-the-scenes construction of The Void’s Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, an immersive, location-based virtual reality experience at Downtown Disney in Anaheim, CA which places visitors inside the Star Wars universe.
Late last year, Giroux Glass was called in to furnish and install an exterior curtain wall system, exterior automatic all-glass sliding door system, and entrance glazing at this particular location of The Void. As to what goes on within the walls (and windows), The Void is a full-sensory immersive experience where groups walk into real-time hyper-reality that combines interactive sets, effects, and impressive technology. A clever wireless rig allows guests to freely roam a large virtual space that is mapped onto a physical maze, so that you can actually reach out and touch objects such as buttons, walls, seats, and droids. Sounds fun!
Wandering through the streets of Downtown Disney, or even entering The Void for your own Star Wars virtual reality experience, you may not notice, right away, the glazing and construction work which adds to the magic of the overall experience. This is one of my favorite aspects of estimating and project managing: the job-site environments and fast-paced schedules required to bring these buildings to life are experienced daily by our crews during the project, and enjoyed by visitors once they’re complete.
Giroux Glass worked with the visions of Architects Orange and under the guidance of general contractor, PCL Construction, to bring yet more imaginative craftsmanship to Disneyland park. Our scope consisted of a thermally broken system with a dark bronze anodized finish. The storefront system, manufactured by Arcadia, utilized a laminated glass product which consisted of two panes of a glass with a clear PVB inner-layer and Low E coating, supplied by Glasswerks. Hingewerks provided the automatic, sliding entrance doors.
The Entrance portal, to me, is a very innovative piece consisting of both glass and aluminum panels. It consists of white laminated glass, giving off a white glow at night due to the high-density LED lights behind it. We installed the panels and were also involved in the design phase (thank you to Giroux Glass’ Jenny Jimenez for her help designing some of the panel features). Our team members involved dedicated a lot of time on this project, which typically required after hours work. A strong shout-out to Jeorge Puente’s team, and Rob Neal who played a big role as well. This was a very interesting project and one that I enjoyed as both an estimator and project manager.
May the 4th be with you today, and have a wonderful Cinco de Mayo weekend as well!
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