How Walt Disney Imagineering Adapts To Building For Residential Communities

BusinessHollywood & EntertainmentHow Walt Disney Imagineering Adapts To Building For Residential CommunitiesByMegan duBois,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Megan duBois is a reporter who covers The Walt Disney Company.Follow AuthorApr 23, 2026, 11:13am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Marquet Hall, Artist concept only; not yet completed and subject to change. Not an actual depiction of the community or its environment. ©DisneyStoryliving by DisneyWalt Disney Imagineering is known for its impressive imagination and detailed storytelling for theme parks and cruise ships around the world. Now the team behind some of the most popular themed attractions around the world is also working on residential communities for Disney’s Storyliving by Disney brand. But for Imagineers who worked on Storyliving’s first community, Cotino, located in Rancho Mirage, California, and the upcoming Asteria in Chatham Park, North Carolina, building a residential community employs many of the same tactics as a theme park, but with a twist. “What I think is so fascinating about Storyliving by Disney communities is that we are taking all of those details that are synonymous with Disney quality, going back to this idea of storytelling, and then how that influences placemaking, and then how that influences your emotions and what you do in this space,” Caroline Boone, Executive Creative Director at Walt Disney Imagineering, tells me. “We’re applying that to a residential community.”For Boone and the rest of her team at Imagineering, Storyliving by Disney focuses on subtle details and elevated storytelling to a place where someone will live every day. “We’ve had a lot of debate and conversation and done a lot of research to understand what is the right level of Disney storytelling for an amenity where you are spending your everyday life,” explains Boone. “We s...