First Look at $2.4 Billion Oriental DreamWorks Complex in Shanghai

Last week DreamWorks revealed the first renderings of the Dream Center, a 40-acre, $2.4 billion development in Shanghai, China. Scheduled to open in 2017 (or early-2018), the site will house the Oriental DreamWorks production studio, which is currently working on Kung Fu Panda 3, as well as the world’s largest IMAX screen, eight outdoor plazas, hotels, restaurants, theaters, galleries, and tourist attractions.

Fifteen different Chinese and international architectural firms are working on designing the various spaces that will have a floor area of 5 million square feet. (For comparison, the DreamWorks Animation campus in Glendale is 6 acres and has 463,000 square feet of office space.)

The site is being envisioned as “a world-class cultural destination…comparable to New York’s Broadway and London’s West End,” according to a 2012 press release. The project was first announced publicly in 2011.

Here’s a news report from a few days ago that shows DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and others discussing the development, and participating in a ‘ribbon cutting’ set to Pharrell Williams’ “Happy,” a song created for rival Illumination Entertainment’s Despicable Me 2.

Click on any of the images for a larger view.

The IMAX theater

Northwest view of the waterfront

Dream Center office buildings

(source: Variety/Wall Street Journal)