Project 235: Universal's Great Movie Escape

Best Flooring Solution

It is such an honor to partner with Universal Studios on this project providing elemental details and solutions for the flooring to help create detailed sets of blockbuster films allowing guests to immerse themselves into stories like never before. The experience begins as soon as patrons enter the art deco, theater-inspired venue, then guests are immediately swept into one of two experiences: Jurassic World: Escape and Back to the Future: OUTATIME. A mixture of hardwood, luxury vinyl tile and carpeting were expertly selected, creating the foundation of the design bringing these movie sets to life. The film set for the Jurassic World experience takes guests into a secret lab on Isla Nublar and the designers did a great job with this design from the technology to the selected finishes and flooring. Shaw Contract Compound 2.5 mm lvt was installed in this area to five the floor crisp, clean concrete visual that accentuated the lab design. While the set for OUTATIME was floored with Mohawk’s Living Local Winterfell lvt creating the perfect base for the Back to the Future set. The theater entry was floored with hardwood and carpeting supporting the art-deco theme as well. This customer has very high standards for quality and no detail goes unnoticed which is expected when trying to bring something digital to life along with a pretty high price tag for the development of perfection. When this project was coming in over budget, Universal's team came to Certified Finishes to see if there were any options to reduce costs of the flooring while still maintaining the original theming and quality. Our team reviewed the specified products, the current space and proposed refinishing the existing hardwood flooring slated for the theater area to help save costs. The material and labor pricing for the new hard wood floors originally selected was proposed for a total cost of $75,000 and our team felt confident that they could restore the existing material to its original glory for only $25,000 without losing any of the original aesthetics. The end result was a beautifully restored hardwood floor that looked as though it was brand new, a total cost savings of $50,000, and a very happy client.

Toughest Site Conditions

As a working movie studio and highly visited theme park destination, Universal Studios City Walk is open to millions of visitors year-round all while continuing to create and construct new exceptional spaces and experiences so all new construction site work must be completed under the veil of the night sky. Certified Finishes is proud to have partnered with this creative client but working within a location that is open every day of the year to thousands of guests can make maintaining the schedule difficult. Due to the nightlife attractions featured at Universal Studio’s City Walk, our working window was even less than other projects we have completed for this same customer. Our Certified team only had access to the space between the hours of 1 AM and 5 AM so all material and equipment deliveries had to be made during this time, as well as all the installation and cleanup. Our team mobilized multiple crews that worked together seamlessly, installing several product types at one time so that we could maintain our schedules within the constraints of the customer’s site conditions.