In 2005, I received a call for a new, exciting project to be built in the Mall of America in Minnesota. It was a mini-golf course on the third floor of the mall. The owners flew me down to the mall to look at the site, which overlooked the large theme park below. As I recall, I had two weeks to dream up and draw up the plans before I travelled back to present them to the mall management. The concept was loosely based on Minnesota’s logging history with lots of fun. The management loved the ideas and gave the project the green light. We were to build all the features and signs, while the ‘mountain’ and infrastructure would be constructed by a Minnesota company specializing in rock work. Over the next few months, we kept busy in our shop creating giant features. Each time a truckload was ready, we loaded a semi, and I travelled down to oversee the installation and ensure the on-site construction lived up to the concepts. It was a challenging, exciting and fun project without a doubt, and it was a success that is still there twenty years later.
A road not taken
In 2000, we built, owned and began operating Giggle Ridge Adventure Golf. A year later, we drew up plans to expand the golf course with a new railroad and bumper boats. The railway was to wind around a mountain, which would have hidden our house and a studio inside. As part of that plan, the Imagination Corporation would have become Giggle Ridge Studio Incorporated, and I would concentrate on concept design only from that point forward. I created the artwork for a new website, business cards and brochures and drew up the plans for the entire project, and we presented the concept to the park board where Giggle Ridge was located, but we could not agree on terms for a long lease. With that deal not possible, we instead bought our property in Yarrow and built our studio, shop and house there. Instead of putting away my tools, we would continue to design and build fanciful creations for customers far and wide. Looking back, this was the perfect plan.
China Adventure Golf
I’ve been working on transferring thousands of old files from CDs to my computer and have come across many projects that have been long forgotten. One such project was a mini-golf course in China. It was to be built in a large mall. I received a series of phone calls from a gentleman there, always in the dead of night, because he never understood the time difference. His English wasn’t very good, and I spoke no Chinese, but we managed to communicate enough to get by. I was contracted to produce a set of concepts and plans for the golf. I also included many photos of current projects in various stages so they could see how we built our features. As I recall, it took a while to send enough information to satisfy them. They paid my design fee in full, and I never heard from them again. Was the project completed? I’ll most likely never know, but if my readers have come across it, I would love to see pictures!
