Over 600 Believe It or Not! exhibits are housed behind the ThemeWorks-created facade of sculptural tableaus of the majestic Great Smoky Mountains scenery and wildlife. In the heart of downtown Gatlinburg are bears, raccoons, possums and other character vignettes tucked amidst soaring cliffs and trees that stretch out over 14,000 square feet of space.
PROJECT DETAILS
Project: Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Gatlinburg
Designer: Ripley’s Entertainment
Client: Ripley’s Entertainment
Size: 14,700 square feet (1,365 m²) of scenery
Photography: Historia Photography
Scope of Work: ThemeWorks provided full design, engineering, fabrication, and installation services for all of the exterior themed elements. Our design work included a ½”- 1’ scale model of the building and thematic elements, and engineered drawings of the entire facade and supporting structure. The fabricated elements consisted of ten street side tree trunk column clads, a main tree trunk on the corner of the building, sprawling trees and branches throughout the facade, vignettes and animal character sculpts on both sides of the building as well as all of the artificial foliage throughout. Four key larger vignettes include Cave Rocks, a Beaver Dam, a Log Cabin, and a Tent Scene with faux ground and fire ring. Numerous hand-sculpted animal characters populate the facade, including a raccoon peeking out of a column wrap, whimsical clocks which feature a squirrel & owl at play, two hanging opossum, a large elk, a smaller elk, a family of raccoons on the owner provided blade sign, a bear in a tree hole, a bat, a trout roasting on a spit, campers feet protruding from the tent, a fox playing a banjo, a bear drinking from a jug, a canoe, a beaver, an eagle on a branch, a catfish, a small bear and a fishing bear in the canoe, a skunk in a cave, a bear with a pie and a baby bear and a picnic basket.