Irvine Firm to Design Theme Park in Taiwan : Entertainment: The $362-million park/resort is the latest of several such projects in Asia for Battaglia Associates.
An Orange County consulting company has been selected to design a $362-million theme park and resort on a hilltop near Taipei, Taiwan.
The World Adventure Resort Complex is the latest of several Asian theme parks being planned by Battaglia Associates Inc., which will also perform engineering work on the Taiwan park.
“It’s the happening market,” said Sandra Parmley, a vice president at the Irvine firm. “The Pacific Rim is where the money is.”
The focus of the 136-acre resort will be a $120-million theme park set to open in 1993 at the present site of a drive-through wild animal park. The new park will be laid out similarly to Disneyland, with a Chinese-style main street that opens onto a central plaza surrounded by fountains.
Around the plaza will be villages representing different parts of the world--the American West, the South Pacific, Europe, an Arabian castle and African huts.
Company President Richard J. Battaglia, an 11-year veteran of the Walt Disney Co., said he is particularly proud of the fountains.
“At night, there will be a water-fireworks show for seven minutes, then an aerial show,” he said. The water-fireworks will shoot fountains of flame into the night sky as the crowd watches from the central plaza.
After the theme park opens, owner Leofoo Development Co. Ltd. plans to build a 250-room hotel, health spa, sports club and gardens. The Taiwanese company also wants to build several 40-room hotels in various parts of the park, so guests could spend a night in a medieval village or an American frontier town.
Some of the rides in the Taiwan park will include special effects and talking robot characters. A flume ride through a Polynesian volcano, for instance, will take visitors through a “lost world” of dinosaurs and giant butterflies, Battaglia said.
Another ride will take visitors through a castle where they come face-to-mask with the Phantom of the Opera. There will also be a roller coaster through a fantasy Arabian palace.
The roads through the African wilderness area will be removed and replaced by a train, which will bring visitors closer to the wild animals.
Battaglia Associates, a 46-employee company founded in 1973, recently designed two other major amusement attractions in Asia. The Lotte World Complex in South Korea opened last March as a major shopping mall and an indoor-outdoor theme park. Its features include a five-acre glass dome enclosure and a European medieval village.
The Haw Par Villa in Singapore, an amusement park incorporating Chinese mythology themes, opened in September, 1990. Its shows and rides portray various aspects of Chinese heritage, history and culture.
Increasing affluence and shorter work weeks in Asia have increased people’s leisure time, and now “they need a place to spend their free time,” Parmley said.
John Robinett, a Los Angeles theme-park industry consultant, said Battaglia is a well-known firm that has joined other West Coast companies in tapping the international market.
“We’ve seen, in the last 10 years, a strong internationalism in our business,” Robinett said.
The international market eventually will reach lesser-developed countries like Brazil, Mexico and India. “You have a lot of people, but not a lot of money, so they may be slow in coming,” he said.
Variations on a Theme Park The World Adventure Resort Complex will include the following themed areas, rides and attractions (clockwise starting from the bottom): 1. Chinatown--The main entrance to the park, with restaurants and gift shops. 2. Wild West--A rodeo ring, stunt show and river rapids ride featuring robotic cowboys and Indians. 3. South Pacific--A flume ride through a “lost world” inside a flaming volcano. 4. The Arabian Kingdom--A giant castle that will house a magic carpet ride, a carousel, and a motion-simulator ride. 5. African Continent--A petting zoo, roller coaster and train that takes visitors on a ride through the African grassland to view live animals. 6. European Village--An attraction based on the Phantom of the Opera story, with bumper cars and a beer garden.
Recent Projects in Asia The World Adventure Resort Complex is the latest of several Asian theme parks designed or built by Battaglia Associates Inc. of Irvine. Here are two others: Haw Par Villa Singapore Project Type: Chinese mythology Owner: International Theme Parks Pte. Ltd. Cost: $46 million Opening: September, 1990 Lotto World Complex Jamail, South Korea Project Type: Shopping mall / theme park Owner: Lotto Group Cost: $1 billion Opening: March, 1991 World Adventure Resort Complex Taipel, Taiwan Project Type: Theme park / resort hotel Owner: Leofoo Development Co. Cost: $362 million Opening: 1993 (projected)
