Disneyland Paris Shares a Look at Pavement Details in Avengers Campus, Featuring Area Development Team

At Avengers Campus at Walt Disney Studios Park, recruits are drawn to embark on Avengers Assemble: Flight Force, sling webs at Spider-Bots at Spider-Man: WEB Adventure or eat gigantic meals at Pym Kitchen. Each time recruits decide which adventure should be next, they venture through Stark Plaza and AccuTech Avenue.

This area is where the Area Development (ADEV) team poured their heart and souls into. To learn more about their mission, we walked by the land with Paris Imagineers Estelle Sakana, architect, and Sébastien Duquesne, general superintendent.

A journey step-by-step

As part of the Design and Planning team, Estelle ensured that the creative concepts developed by Imagineers in Glendale were respected and realistically translated to the Paris location. “When I first came to Disneyland Paris four years ago, I was a young architect from Burkina Faso and the whole environment felt surreal,” shared Estelle. “Avengers Campus was my first Imagineering project. It was a real challenge, but I immediately began immersing myself in the Avengers universe to better understand the creative intent. Everything is part of the story — even the paving!”

This approach led to one of the most complex hardscapes in Walt Disney Studios Park. The paving consists of patchworks of grays and whites; with a mixture of classic paving stones, metal and concrete as well as glass — a first at Disneyland Paris — that beautifully reflects the light of the sun during the day.

“There are subtle variations of what we can think of as a paving stone — both in terms of size and color. We followed a very rigorous layout in which we integrated a ‘random element’ with these glass pavers. It is far from basic paving,” added Sébastien, who supervised the work on the construction site. “At Avengers Campus Paris, we have four major buildings housing the stories of our attractions and restaurants. To me, the Area Development is like the fifth building. This is what links everything and makes it a cohesive place.”

This connective tissue element is also true behind-the-scenes as the area development was a result of a true collaboration between construction, creative, D+P, show, estimating, ADEV teams and partners.

Leaving their mark

At Stark Plaza, there is one element on the ground that is a must-see. “The Avengers logo was definitely our biggest challenge.” Sébastien continued, “The metal pieces that compose it were huge, nearly 180 feet long for the biggest one. We had to be creative to avoid dilatation of the material because we knew we had one chance of doing it right. This is the heart of the campus, where everyone is gathering.”

This contemporary element is joined by other details that add authenticity and history to the place. Estelle explained, “Because the W.E.B. building was originally a Stark Motor Facility, we included railways that exit the facility and go to Stark Factory as if it was the continuation of the assembly line at the time. In addition to that, all the paving of the queue at W.E.B. has been aged in a non-uniform way on purpose.”

A new playground for guests

Now that the campus is open, thousands of recruits step foot in the land every day, eager to see and experience everything the area has to offer. The choice might be different for each recruit, but the one thing they have all in common is they encounter the work of Estelle, Sébastien, and all the teams involved in the Area Development. “I’m very proud of our work,” said Estelle. “I recently read a tweet from a guest that stated what he loved the most at Avengers Campus Paris was the ground. I’ve sent it to the whole team. We are extremely pleased by the response so far.”

And Sébastien concluded, “Now, everyone is taking pictures of the ‘A’ logo. Children are playing with it. Soon after opening, I saw a four-year-old boy showcasing his acrobatic skills to Spider-Man, who was encouraging him from the roofs of the campus. Everyone, including Spidey, started to applaud him and you could see the stars in his eyes. That’s when I realize the emotion and the success of our project.