Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
MARKET
Parks & Zoos
PRODUCTS
Premium Killimanjaro
LOCATION
Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA
Every company has an origin story. This is Endureed’s. Twenty-five years ago, Walt Disney Imagineering set out to build a massive African-themed resort and needed a thatched roof that Factory Mutual would actually insure, something no natural material could offer at that scale. What resulted was a 45,000-square-foot roof, the largest thatched roof in America at the time, engineered in the Kilimanjaro profile to capture the look of natural African grass thatch while meeting Florida building code, Reedy Creek’s own compliance standards, and a 20-year performance requirement that had never been asked of a thatched roof before.
That roof is still standing today. It has outlasted hurricanes, humidity, and a quarter century of guests circling the pool below it, and Disney has since replaced sections of other roofing on the property with more of the same Endureed product because of how it has performed. The deep, warm brown tones and rhythmic wave pattern across the roofline were never just an aesthetic choice. They were proof, on the biggest stage in themed hospitality, that engineered thatch could do something natural thatch never could: last.
