Steven Grant

Professor

steven.grant@ufl.edu 407-967-1521

Gainesville FL UNITED STATES
College of Design Construction and Planning

Steven Grant worked on the design and construction of over 100 themed environments at Walt Disney World.

Contact

Biography

Steven Grant retired from Walt Disney Imagineering to be the director of the Themed Environments Integration Graduate Program at the University of Florida's Orlando CityLab.

Areas of Expertise

Theme Parks

Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Themed Environments

Media Appearances

'A Fresh Set of Eyes'

Orlando Sentinel print

2021-09-21

When your professor is a fan of the Orlando Fringe Festival, you don’t know what your next assignment might be. But this summer’s classwork could lead to innovations for Fringe-goers at next May’s annual festival — courtesy of University of Florida students. How does a bar just for kids sound? Or an interactive walkway filled with unexpected Fringe experiences and engaging fun?Both are ideas that came from the 20 students enrolled in the summer semester of UF’s Project Development Studio at the Gainesville-based university’s Orlando CityLab, an off-campus School of Architecture program that specializes in urban design and interdisciplinary collaboration. What connected an educational program like that with the Fringe? Steven Grant, the program director, is a huge fan of the Fringe Festival, the annual celebration of creativity through two weeks of short plays, concerts, dance performances, art displays, children’s activities and more in Orlando’s Loch Haven Park.

A guide to Orlando’s themed entertainment academic programs

InPark Magazine online

2022-03-11

Colleges and universities now recognize “themed experience” as an academic field benefiting students and the industry with tailor-made programs that produce highly trained and educated candidates. As an international hub of the industry, it is fitting that Orlando has its own vibrant and diverse cluster, a unique themed entertainment education ecosystem with options to study themed experience design and production, project management, and hospitality management at both undergraduate and graduate levels.