ALONG FOR THE RIDE; DISNEY'S IMAGINEERING DIVISION HAS BEEN SETTING INDUSTRY STANDARD FROM THE START.

Byline: Dave McNary Staff Writer

You'd never know it at first glance, but an anonymous building just north of the intersection of the Golden State and Ventura freeways is the birthplace of Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Toon Town and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

In fact, for the last 38 years, it has been the unquestioned heart and soul of the world's theme park business.

There are few signs that the two-story Flower Street structure is headquarters of The Walt Disney Co.'s Imagineering division, which succeeded WED Enterprises 15 years ago. Between them, WDI and WED opened what are regarded within the business as seven wonders of the modern theme-park world - four versions of Disneyland, Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios and Animal Kingdom.

``The Disney influence is quite extraordinary,'' said Peter Chernack, president of entertainment design specialist Metavision and former chief of the Themed Entertainment Association. `` `Disney quality' is a very common phrase now in terms of describing attention to detail. And that's impacted the level of guest expectation, more importantly.''

Walt Disney first began sketching ideas for his park in 1951 and, driven by the notion that visitors should feel they had stepped into a movie, opened Disneyland four years later.

``It was a revolutionary breakthrough on several levels,'' said Harrison ``Buzz'' Price, who performed the original feasibility study. ``It was not going to be run by carnies, so you weren't going to get your pocket picked, and the storytelling was so good that you couldn't recognize that you were being told a story.''

Disney's basic idea was to merge creativity with technical expertise - all done in-house - as the Imagineers came up with innovations such as the monorail and the Matterhorn. In 1961, the Imagineers moved to a Glendale industrial park.

Two years later, the division introduced its breakthrough audio-animatronics technology with singing birds at the Tiki Room at Disneyland, then followed with a variety of exhibits at the New York's World Fair, including ``It's a Small World,'' the Ford Magic Skyway and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.

``When people saw Lincoln at the fair, they'd never seen anything like it before,'' said veteran consultant Dennis Speigel, a past president of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions group. ``Disney is the benchmark everyone else in the industry tries to hit. Whenever anyone talks about a new park, they always say they want `a Disney park.' ''

By the time Disney died in 1966, his plans for a massive entertainment complex in Orlando, Fla., had started taking shape. Disneyland also achieved major triumphs in 1967 with the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and in 1969 with the Haunted Mansion - attractions which would have been too difficult for any other operator, Speigel believes.

``Disney won't stop spending until it gets it right,'' Speigel said. ``They are incomparable at the research and development they need to communicate a story.''

In 1975, Disneyland opened the first computer-controlled thrill ride with Space Mountain. During the 1970s, pressure mounted as rival theme parks sprang up, often staffed by ex-WED employees, and Disney's film division slumped.

But the company remained committed to its lucrative theme-park operations and opened its ``second gate'' in Florida with Epcot, based on Walt Disney's vision of a futuristic community, in October 1982. Tokyo Disneyland debuted six months later.

With Michael Eisner taking over in 1984, WED was renamed Walt Disney Imagineering. He is credited with turning what had been a second-tier player in the entertainment business into a corporate giant; still, theme parks remain what financial analysts like to call Disney's ``core competency.''

Even with Eisner under intense pressure to boost profits, Disney has decided it still makes sense to spend money on theme parks. In September, it announced plans to revamp the Glendale site into a high-tech ``creative campus''; and in early November, it reached agreement with Hong Kong for an as-yet-unnamed theme park with the government investing $2.88 billion and Disney putting up $320 million.

How pervasive is Disney's influence? Just ask Trevor Bryant, who opened Sony's Burbank-based operation for development of themed entertainment centers five years ago. Even though Sony's Metreon project opened last summer in San Francisco and its next two will open in Berlin and Tokyo, he said there was really no choice but to remain in Burbank, where Sony employs about 100 people.

``We had to locate here because we started with people who had worked at Imagineering and Universal,'' said Bryant, who had worked for Disney for 14 years. ``Rather than asking them to relocate, it made sense to be in a neighborhood that has been created around the theme park industry.''

Entertainment analyst Kevin Skislock of Laguna Research Partners said Imagineering faces a serious challenge from the success of rival concepts.

``You're seeing Disney-quality theming coming into the local markets, which puts pressure on Disney to keep creating entertainment that cannot be duplicated,'' he said.``I do believe that Disney is up to the challenge because it's the gold standard in theming. But the world is only going to get more competitive.''