"We really strive to be different - to create something shocking that makes people go, 'wow, that's cool; that's different'," says Gary Goddard, founder and CEO. "And that's what makes us stand out - we're not repetitive. You don't see a particular, singular style to our work. The only connecting thread is that everything is of high quality, but every idea and project is distinct."

The Goddard Group brings the best of global entertainment, hospitality, retail and brand design to Asia's expanding market for leisure- and entertainment-driven real estate. It conceptualises theme parks such as Sanrio Puroland in Japan and Six Flags Dubailand, and designs projects such as Crossroads of the World - a 40,000 sq ft shopping area in Grand Indonesia, Indonesia's largest shopping mall.

Imagination: the key to other worlds

As a child, Goddard was fascinated with Disneyland - an interest that soon led to a career at The Walt Disney Company as an "Imagineer", where he developed concepts for EPCOT and World Showcase, Tokyo Disneyland and River Country. Goddard was a co-developer and director of the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue at Walt Disney World Resort's Fort Wilderness - Walt Disney World's longest-running dinner show, which is still running today.

"I always thought about how cool it would be to be Walt Disney, waking up in the morning and thinking, 'well, today I'm going to work on a movie', or 'today I'm going to work on a theme park'," Goddard says.

"I've always been interested, and have had the background, in many different arts - movies, music, theatre and theme parks - and I somehow set the scenario in place to explore all these different things by creating a company that would allow me to have the freedom that Walt Disney had. I don't think that was a conscious decision, but more a path that life led me to."

Goddard left Disney and formed his own company, Gary Goddard Productions, in 1980. Through a partnership with Sanrio, Goddard was able to enter the Asian market by designing the first "destination" Sanrio retail store on the Ginza in Tokyo, Japan. The concept was an instant success that soon inspired the chain of Disney and Warner stores to follow over the years. 

But it was Goddard's dream to design a theme park just like Disneyland that ignited the succession of projects that would eventually culminate into the Gary Goddard entertainment empire - or the Goddard Group, as it stands today - and its tradition of creating the world's greatest, timeless attractions. In 1990, Goddard designed Sanrio Puroland, followed by Harmonyland in Kyushu in 1991 and a string of theme park projects around the world. 

"A beautiful, well-landscaped theme park actually brings up the overall value of housing and residential areas," Goddard says. "Thirty years ago, building housing next to a theme park would have been a crazy idea, but today, a high-quality theme park is a magnet around which the land value of surrounding real estate just goes up." 

Goddard has since diversified across the sphere of entertainment design, from creating several large-scale attractions for Universal Studios to producing several shows on and off Broadway. These shows include a Tony Award-winning 2009 revival of the musical Hair, and a new theatrical experience dubbed "Broadway 4D", which combines 3D film and theatrical effects to bring the production to life. He has written and directed motion pictures, and created and produced television series. This background in the world of film, theatre, television and live events is what informs his design work and creates a point of difference from others.

"We bring the element of theatre into everything we do - that's the big difference and our unique advantage," Goddard says. "We're the only company I know of that is active in Broadway, films and television simultaneously, and that keeps us at the cutting edge of entertainment. That helps us create not just from a design standpoint, but from an experience standpoint because we want to emotionally connect with people - and I think that's why the attractions I've designed over the years have stood the test of time."

Designing an iconic future

In Asia, the Goddard Group is responsible for more new theme parks, world-class resorts and entertainment attractions than any other designer in the world. The company is working on a number of billion-dollar projects with heavyweight clients and partners across China such as Studio City - a cinematically themed, Hollywood-inspired gaming and leisure destination resort in Macau. Slated to open this year, the project was created for Asian entertainment resort and casino operator Melco Crown Entertainment. 

The group, in design partnership with Haichang Holdings, is also creating Polar Ocean World, a marine-themed cultural park in Shanghai scheduled to open in 2017. 

A synthesis of entertainment, ecology and scientific research, Polar Ocean World has been hailed as an important part of China's tourism plan, and will be developed on a 300,000-square-metre site next to Dishui Lake and just some 30 minutes from Shanghai Disneyland.

"We offer a point of difference; I like to say that when others zig, we zag", Goddard says. "We try not to follow; we lead. We're very careful about looking at every single project as a unique one, and view each market, each city and country through its own lens. When we look at a market, we don't want to compete so much as we want to build attractions that complement the uniqueness and culture in whichever area of the world they are. In this way, we find greater success for our clients and partners."

As proof of its status as one of the world's most respected pioneers in the architectural design and leisure industry, the Goddard Group has received public acclaim in China for its involvement in the design of Shenfu New Town. The 22-square-kilometre development fuses retail, entertainment, mixed-use and residential areas - for which the group provided urban planning for the 2.2-square-metre centre of the city featuring the iconic symbol of the city at its very heart. 

Shenfu New Town's crowning glory - a magnificent, iconic monument called the Ring of Harmony, which stands 157 metres high at the edge of a lake in the centre of the town - was also designed by Goddard and his team. When seen as a reflection on the lake, the Ring of Harmony creates a figure "8" - the Asian symbol of good fortune and prosperity.

As part of its exciting future plans, the Goddard Group formed a new joint venture in May with Canadian entertainment company Cirque du Soleil, the largest theatrical producer in the world. The vision is to create an immersive world of highly original theme parks, resorts and attractions across the globe, with plans to open the first park in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. 

"Everything we do is family-based - it's entertainment for the worldwide market," Goddard says. "I'm hoping that in the next three to five years, we'll be able to merge our various interests into one very interesting company and find a strong financial partner to work with us in all areas of the entertainment business." 

By 2020, Los Angeles-based engineering firm AECOM predicts that China will outnumber the United States in park-goers, with nearly US$24 billion spent by Chinese developers on theme park construction alone in 2013. 

Given its outstanding track record of global projects and extensive clientele listing some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry - including Universal Studios, Six Flags, Lotte World and Caesars Palace - the Goddard Group looks towards collaborations with operators, developers and financial entities to address the inevitable upsurge in demand across Asia for world-class entertainment attractions. "We are a content creator on every level, and that's how we grow in value," Goddard says. "We always aspire to work with visionary partners who share our dedication to quality and long-term success, and that enables us to continue growing together."