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Disney Hires a Playground Maker for Monstropolis, as a New Imagineering Permit Hints at a Play Area Nobody Has Announced
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Disney Hires a Playground Maker for Monstropolis, as a New Imagineering Permit Hints at a Play Area Nobody Has Announced

Michael Travels
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Published

Nobody hires a playground company to build a gift shop. That is the logic behind the newest Monstropolis paperwork: Walt Disney Imagineering filed a permit on Tuesday, October 13, naming Landscape Structures, Inc., a maker of commercial playground equipment, as the contractor for work in the Monsters, Inc. land at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Disney has not announced a play area for Monstropolis, and the permit itself only says "General Construction." But Blog Mickey, WDWMagic and WDW News Today, the outlets that broke the filing, all read it as a playground clue. As WDW News Today put it: "But we don't know what else they would hire a playground company to do except build a playground."

Concept art of Monstropolis: the Monsters, Inc. factory with its domed entrance at the top, palm-lined plaza in front, and at the left a cluster of green and blue shade canopies over a paved area with small figures beneath them

Disney concept art of Monstropolis, cropped by Blog Mickey. The green and blue shade canopies at left, beside the Monsters, Inc. factory, are what Blog Mickey and WDWMagic point to as the likely play area. Image: Disney (via Blog Mickey)

What the permit says

  • Filed: Tuesday, October 13, 2026, as a Notice of Commencement.
  • Owner: Walt Disney Imagineering.
  • Contractor: Landscape Structures, Inc., of Delano, Minnesota.
  • Scope: "General Construction," the only scope listed.
  • Address: 361 Cypress Drive, which belongs to the former Stage 1 Company Store, the Muppets shop that was demolished to make way for Monstropolis.
  • Expiration: left blank, which Blog Mickey says means the standard one-year window applies.

Where would it go?

This is where the outlets split. Blog Mickey thinks the store address is "a sort of catch-all" for the permit, and that the work actually points to a playground just left of the entrance to the Door Vault roller coaster, which it says shows up in two pieces of concept art Disney has already released. WDWMagic agrees that earlier Disney art appears to show "colorful shade canopies over what looks like a play zone."

WDW News Today is less sure. It says a playground is not visible on the concept art, though it allows that a covered area near the Monsters, Inc. building could be it, "although it's nowhere near the Stage 1 Company Store address." It also floats a smaller outcome: "It's possible Landscape Structures won't be installing a large playground but just one or two interactive elements."

Bird's-eye concept art of Monstropolis at Disney's Hollywood Studios: a plaza with a fountain in the foreground, the Glob Theater with its clock tower at right, Harryhausen's partway up the street at left, and the Monsters, Inc. factory at the top with blue and green canopies to its left

Disney's bird's-eye concept art of Monstropolis. The canopies sit in front of and just left of the Monsters, Inc. factory at the top of the frame. Image: Disney

Who is Landscape Structures?

The Minnesota company has done Disney work before. Blog Mickey notes it supplied the equipment for the Music Garden Melodies play area at the 2016 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival, with musical instruments like chimes and drums alongside climbing and slide structures. Closer to now, Blog Mickey and WDWMagic both say the same firm is handling the Tropical Americas playground now under construction at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Why a play area would matter here

When Disney gave Monstropolis its 2027 opening year at D23, it said parts of the land would open while work continues on the door coaster, so the door coaster will not be part of that 2027 opening (our report from August). What is coming in 2027 includes the Glob Theater show, table service at Harryhausen's, quick service at Archie's Scare Pig Pizza and the Scareporium shop, per WDWMagic. WDWMagic calls a play area "a natural fit" for a family land, and for an opening without its coaster, somewhere for small monsters to burn off energy would not hurt.

For now, treat it as a strong hint, not an announcement. Disney has not said what Landscape Structures is building, or when it opens.

Concept art of a Monstropolis street: Sulley greets a child on a brick sidewalk, a girl holds two monster-faced ice cream cones, a red car with teeth sits at a crosswalk sign reading DON'T STALK, and the Monsters, Inc. factory rises behind

Concept art of the Monstropolis streets, with Sulley greeting guests and the Monsters, Inc. factory behind. Image: Disney

Slides and climbing nets, or just a couple of interactive monster gadgets? What would you want Disney to put in a Monstropolis play area?

Sources

Image credits: Disney (cropped concept art via Blog Mickey; bird's-eye and street concept art via Disney Parks Blog).

Mentioned in this story

Check out our guides for more on each place in this story:

Hollywood Studios Monsters, Inc. Suspended Coaster Harryhausen's Archie's Scare Pig Pizza Scareporium

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