Start Your Engines

What do people in Abu Dhabi and Cincinnati have in common? They want to have fun.

No one understands this better than the creative team at Jack Rouse Associates, one of the world's leading experiential design firms whose founders got their start in the industry in Ohio, and now design entertainment venues all over the world from the company's headquarters in downtown Cincinnati.

Jack Rouse, founder and CEO, and Keith James, president, cut their teeth in the theme park industry by working on the original entertainment plans for Kings Island back in the early 1970s. The two met when Rouse was a professor at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and James was his student.

In November, the firm took part in the opening of one of the newest and most unusual parks ever, Ferrari World of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, which JRA designed.

James and Randy Smith, the senior designer on the project, sat down with Soapbox and talked about the challenges of working on a park with an iconic brand like Ferrari in a location half way around the world, and about the changes in their industry.

The World Wants Theme Parks

Once a uniquely American idea, James explained that theme parks are now as varied and diverse as the far flung countries that are building them.

James spends more than two thirds of his time flying to countries around the world to sell JRA's talents to clients in places like India, China and the Middle East.

"The U.S. market for theme parks is mature," says Keith. "The countries that are interested in building them now are the developing countries. Some of our next projects will be in places like China and Malaysia."

For Abu Dhabi, the capital and second largest city in the United Arab Emirates, Ferrari World is part of a new development strategy that the city hopes will attract tourists from all over the globe. The park is one piece of a larger development plan that includes museums, luxury resorts and marinas on Yas Island.

For JRA, Ferrari World was one of the most challenging parks the firm has tackled, says Smith, in part because of the nature of Ferrari's famous name, and also because it combined elements of all the types of venues they design: theme parks, museums and sports venues. Not to mention that it is the world's largest indoor theme park, roughly 930,000 square feet under a red domed roof modeled to look like the side view of a Ferrari GT. The area's hot climate, where average temperatures reach 105 degrees, made an indoor park a necessity.

As one of the most exclusive brands in the world, Ferrari presented particular challenges to the design team because they needed to protect the company's iconic image when creating the attractions, while also making them appealing enough to draw crowds.

"Grand Prix racing has a huge fan base, especially in Europe," says Smith. "But we needed to translate that into rides and entertainment that didn't cheapen Ferrari's image."

As expected, the park includes many rides related to auto racing, says Smith. Since the park is named for a famously fast auto, it needed to have the world's fastest roller coaster. The Formula Rossa roller coaster travels at up to 149 mph, beating the previous record by 21 mph. Of course, the cars look like the legendary Formula One Ferraris.

The roller coaster is just one of dozens of rides that are based on the Ferrari racing legend, others include an interactive 3-D show following the life of a Ferrari engineer, a virtual tour inside a Ferrari factory, and a flume ride that takes the rider through the heart of a Ferrari 599 engine.

But JRA also included details that appeal to a broader audience, especially women and children, who they knew might not understand the racing themes as well.

Italian history, food and fashion are all incorporated into the park's shops and restaurants so that guests can get a feeling of Ferrari heritage apart from the racing, says Smith. Kids' rides include a Junior Grand Prix and a Junior GT race course where kids drive miniature versions of the racing autos - some with only peddles for power.

Now that the Abu Dhabi park is complete, James says JRA is focusing on its museum design work, which is still a busy market here in the U.S.

"Museums are waking up to the fact that being more entertaining helps to bring in crowds," says James. "Children's museums are a big project base for us."

While JRA's reputation has made it one of the biggest names in the experiential design world, James says that it is still such a niche marketplace that most of the professionals who work in the business know each other on a first name basis.

"Our industry is very tight," he says. "We're more like family than anything. You could count the number of businesses that do what we do on one hand."

The intimate working atmosphere means that firms borrow from each other when the need arises to add personnel on short notice. This is a good thing, James says, except that it means that most firms don't add a lot of new employees, instead they just share when necessary.

"Everybody's going to stay as lean as they can right now," says James of the still sputtering economy.

But, he does think that JRA will be very busy as the next wave of "fun" parks are built around the world.

"What we do, we do really, really well."

--

This story originally appeared in Soapbox.