Aerial photographer bioreconstruct shared photos of Epic Universe construction this week, including of the in-park Helios Grand Hotel and the nearby Terra Luna and Stella Nova Resorts.
Epic Universe Hotels
Helios Grand Hotel
The center of the hotel is topped with a large dome, which is currently just a steel framework but will eventually be covered in paneling. Crews have installed white wall paneling over most of the hotel’s exterior. Green molding lines the top floor and some other edges.
Some sets of windows on the hotel are rounded and protruding like bay windows. Other columns are rounded on the top. Two cranes are stationed at the hotel.
In the foreground of the above photo is How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk.
Below the dome framework is a rotunda and the steel beams of future walls. This space will be a lounge overlooking Epic Universe.
For comparison, above is the concept art of the Helios Grand Hotel. Concepts are always subject to change.
Terra Luna & Stella Nova
Located off-site but nearby are the new Universal Terra Luna and Stella Nova Resorts, which will open early next year, before Epic Universe. The pair of buildings are slightly curved in a boomerang shape. Crews have been covering them in colorful reflective tiles.
Orange and red tiles currently wrap around this end of Terra Luna Resort. A tube for dropping construction materials runs down the building nearby. The guest rooms have rounded windows to match their space theming.
Most of the building is covered in a white support grid for the tiles. The walls of the first two floors are bare and concept art confirms they won’t be covered in tiles like the rest of the buildings.
An awning juts out of the Terra Luna building over the first floor in this photo. Yellow weather-proof sheathing lines the edge of the awning.
Above, this section of the building is almost completely covered in tiles, which are arranged in a gradient effect from green to blue to purple, then back to green and into yellow.
This photo shows the reflective tiles close up. In the center is a white tile with a light on it. At night, this will glow like a star.
This photo shows three more of the white tiles with lights — one in the lower center, one in the upper left, and one on the far right.
Crews have been installing the tiles for months but it will take a long time to completely cover the buildings.
Specially cut tiles go around the rounded windows.
Tile installation is further along on Stella Nova Resort. Note that around the entrance, the colorful tiles do come down over the first two floors. The entrance has an oblong awning and a white semi-circle entrance — reminiscent of the Epic Universe portals.
The other side of Stella Nova Resort, as seen from Universal Blvd, is fully covered in colorful tiles. The opposite side of the lobby has a large wall of windows across the first two floors.
Read more about Terra Luna and Stella Nova.
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