ONE HAS TO LOOK hard to find any trace of Mickey Mouse & Co. in the design of Disney's 1,293-room Animal Kingdom Lodge at Florida's Walt Disney World. The subtle references to Disney's famous icon are relegated to mere cameo appearances. Clearly, Africa is the star of Disney's newest resort, which opened in April.

Located along the park's western edge on a savannah grazed by hoof-stock herbivores, this exotic lodge is the latest answer to Disney Chairman Michael Eisner's mandate to create architecture that is never boring. Denver-based Urban Design Group builds on the tradition of work done for Disney by other noted architects such as Robert A.M. Stern, Arata Isozaki, Michael Graves, Arquitectonica, Gwathmey Siegel & Associates, David Rockwell, Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo, and its own design for the Wilderness Lodge to invent spaces that invite a suspension of belief. The "Africa" that lies over the threshold of the main lobby is neither cartoon nor caricature, but an innovative reconstruction of Africa's art, culture, and way of life.

Like everything Disney does, it is the effortless aspect of fantasy the public sees. As guests glimpse the thatched roof of the main building, it is doubtful they will notice that it is made of geo-plastics. Nor will most visitors be aware that the exterior columns—inspired by the look of an east African lodge—are cement and steel manipulated to look like wood. The palpable reality of the vines that overgrow the building, the sheltering palm trees, the savannah-like landscape and the more than 200 mammals and three dozen species of birds on the site blurs what is man-made and what is natural into a believable whole.

Both Urban Design Group interior designer Avery Brooks & Associates (ABA), Las Vegas, and lounge/restaurant designer Jeffery Beers International, New York, recognized the need to balance this large-scale "architecture of emotion," as Urban's Peter Dominick describes it, with a sense of intimacy. While guests may appreciate the availability of nearly 1,300 rooms when trying to make reservations , they do not want the institutional feel of a mega-hotel.

Multi-level architecture and the basic horseshoe shape of the building subdivide the 900,000-sq.-ft. hotel into a "village" of individual spaces. Bridges and small atriums truncate the corridors. Dominick used these bridges in the public spaces as opportunities to bring light into the building and afford views of the animals from various vantage points. The small atriums built into the guest room floor corridors serve as showcases for African art, tools, and costumes. Changes in levels and an emphasis on strategic focal points encourage guests to explore.

ABA and Jeffery Beers faced the dual challenge of reducing these open spaces to a more human scale without having the furnishings dwarfed by their surroundings. "The proportions of the lobby furniture were carefully studied in model form," says Todd-Avery Lenahan, principal with ABA. "We designed a shelter-style sofa with a high back for the lobby. Not only do they create a sense of privacy, they also give the proper sense of scale. The hand-carved wood in the sofa frame adds distinction and a sense of balance to the grand scale of the lobby, while the proportions of the cushions and pillows allow for comfort and a human dimension. The lobby's console tables are higher than usual for better viewing of the artifacts."

For the restaurants, Jeffery Beers mixed large and small statements. Huts and low walls corral the seating arrangements in the 280-seat family restaurant, Boma. Gone is the long line synonymous with buffet service. In its stead is an assemblage of eclectic huts and houses with a mix of colored euki wood, thatch, and other traditional African materials that make this seem more like a marketplace than restaurant.

Jiko, the specialty restaurant, is "a surrealist dream of Africa," says Beers. Ovens morph into giant vessels while a flock a stylized birds take flight overhead. Abstracted African grasses frame the wine display. The use of tiger wood, hand-carved furnishings, and wooden flooring that brings the guest back to earth and secures a thematic link with the rest of the hotel.

Concern for authenticity was a major theme for Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) as well as the architect and designers, says Wing Chao, WDI executive vice president of master planning, architecture, and design. After traveling through Africa, WDI and the design team settled on a tighter interpretation of the safari theme. Zulu shields, African butterfly masks, handwoven Kente costumes, and art influences from the Ivory Coast, Mali, Upper Volta, Nigeria, Sudan, and Kenya combine to give guests the experience of being in an Africa few will ever see firsthand.

Maintaining authenticity was particularly difficult in the guest rooms. "We had to create a room in which the furniture pieces would meet the needs and expectations of the Western guest, but have the design aesthetic of Africa," says Anita Brooks, principal with ABA. "One cannot simply go shopping in Africa to find the needed headboard, television armoire, light fixtures, and variety of shelf designs. In addition, all elements had to meet Florida's stringent fire codes. So we used dozens of African headboards as the inspiration for the shape and designs of our headboards. The patterns in the custom fabrics used on the bedspreads and draperies are reinterpretations of traditional African patterns printed on durable fire-retardant fabrics."

Design elements offer as much to adults as children. Wall coverings represent a map of a section of Africa which reads as simply a romantic mural or a visual puzzle that subtley includes both animals and Disney icons in the backgrounds. While adults appreciate the romance of the looped mosquito netting above the bed or the continuity of the handcarved wood elements and mud wall finishes, children are drawn to the bright African colors and the dash of Disney provided by opportunities to find the "Mickeys" in the guest room fabrics and corridor carpets. Throughout the hotel, there are explanations of both art and artifacts aimed at enriching the experience and enjoyment of an audience that ranges from the youngest children to seniors.

"A hotel is really a three-dimensional film set. Like a movie, it is about fantasy, imagination, and emotion," says Chao. "Design means not only the architecture and the furnishings, but the graphics and costumes. Everything has to fit. The eyes of the guest see like the lens of a camera. The goal of the design is to make guests think that they are really in Africa."