Disney Store Shanghai – Outdoor Plaza Clock Tower

McLaren Engineering Group provided a full review and analysis of all mechanical and structural components of a 60-foot-tall Glockenspiel-style clock tower at the Shanghai Disney Resort in China. The tower is located outside the largest Disney retail location in the world and is the first Disney store to have an outdoor plaza and clock.

The McLaren Difference: Applied Ingenuity

McLaren’s entertainment engineers provided an evaluation and assessment of the clock’s structural components, including show action equipment (i.e. clock gears and a revolving assortment of Disney characters), built into the clock and appear hourly to parade in a circular motion. During its construction, McLaren was asked to increase the previously specified height of the tower by five feet. McLaren had to ensure that the tall, slender frame of the clock tower could withstand additional wind loads and environmental impacts, while having minimal to no aesthetic impacts to the structure. The subsequent design required the upsizing of the vertical structural components through wall thickness and increased section size.

The tall and slender profile of the structure, coupled with space constraints required to accommodate the various mechanism throughout, resulted in substantial design forces throughout the compact structural members and connections.