Starbucks, Downtown Disney West Side, Orlando, Florida
Starbucks Corp. has opened its first company-operated store at Walt Disney World Resort, a nearly 4,000-sq.-ft. site at Downtown Disney West Side in Orlando, Florida.
The store has been designed to take advantage of its waterfront location and includes a spacious patio overlooking Lake Buena Vista. The interior has a welcoming, natural vibe, with a variety of seating that includes a long bench made of heart pine salvaged from an Alabama cotton mill built in the mid-1800s. Artwork made of metallic Venetian plaster depicts the Starbucks coffee origin story. A living wall is accented with a replica of the company’s signature Siren, created in moss.
Other highlights include 70-inch digital display panels that use built-in cameras to create chalk sketches of guests and their surroundings — the cameras automatically transforms whatever is in front of them into a live illustration. (When users touch the screen, they can draw on the rendering with their fingers.) Customers can also use the touch-screens to interact with customers in Starbucks at Downtown Disney in Anaheim, California, which features the same digital chalkboards.
The new Disney site is Starbucks 500th location. It is lit entirely with LED lighting. Reclaimed oak, maple and other sustainable materials are used throughout the space and community tables are made from salvaged trees. The store has a green roof consisting of hundreds of lemon grass plants. (The grass was grown in a nursery and fed with compost from coffee grounds from a nearby Starbucks store.)
Design: Starbucks Corp., Photos: Matthew Glac for Starbucks