For his senior thesis at the University of Cincinnati, Bruce D. Robinson created a model of a community orbiting Earth in zero gravity. It helped set the stage for an out-of-this-world career in which he has pushed the bounds of architecture and designed structures that tell stories, often in eye-popping and whimsical ways.
Just before graduating, Robinson worked for an architect who, as fate would have it, was helping to design the then-under-construction Kings Island.
“I was looking for different things that could be combined with architecture and when I got to entertainment, I thought, ‘This is it,’” he says. “It really was a fluke—a pathway, a door that opened up.”
That led to a position with the Ohio park’s parent company, Taft Broadcasting, where Robinson became the director of design, working alongside industry titans such as Jack Rouse and Keith James. For his first project he helped master plan and design Canada’s Wonderland in his hometown of Toronto. Rather than duplicate the Eiffel Towers that greet guests at sister parks Kings Island and Kings Dominion, Robinson and his team created Wonder Mountain. He reasoned that the fanciful structure would serve as both a compelling focal point and a base that could later be used for coasters and other attractions. Sure enough, the park has introduced rides that incorporate the mountain through the years, including the launch coaster, AlpenFury, which is set to blast out of its vent in 2025.
Robinson left the company in 1982, and like many Taft alumni, started his own shop in Cincinnati, BDR Design Group. Among the dozens of projects the firm has worked on around the globe is West Edmonton Mall, which features attractions such as the groundbreaking World Waterpark. The cavernous, slide-filled building helped usher in the era of massive indoor water parks. Over the course of three decades, BDR has also worked with Ripley’s, designing attractions such as the Believe it or Not! building in Niagara Falls that appears to have toppled on its side.
“The job of a Ripley’s is to grab you by the neck and drag you off the street,” says Robinson. “We have to get you engaged in the experience.”
Similarly, BDR created a building that is flipped upside down at Katmandu Park in Mallorca, Spain. The firm has a reputation for developing ingenious, striking designs like these, but for clients with limited budgets.
“We considered how simply could we achieve amazing,” Robinson explains. “That’s how we came up with our mantra, ‘Simply Amazing.’”
More recently, BDR applied that kind of can-do attitude for the family-owned theme park, Lost Island in Waterloo, Iowa, which opened in 2022. The highly stylized buildings, which include a volcanic mountain, complement the richly themed park. Projects like Lost Island resonate with Robinson, because he especially enjoys helping clients find their vision.
“If people walk into a building we’ve done, and they’re not smiling, we’ve done something wrong,” says Robinson.
After a long career, the talented architect is retiring this year and shuttering BDR. However, the smiles will endure.
A lifelong park fanatic, Arthur Levine first started writing newspaper and magazine travel features about the industry he loves in 1992. He produces his own Substack newsletter, “Arthur’s About Theme Parks” at AboutThemeParks.fun.
- This original reporting from IAAPA News first appeared in Funworld magazine. For more stories and videos covering the global attractions industry and to read a digital version of Funworld magazine, click here.
