A K-STATER IN LEGOLAND

K-STATE GRAD WORKS ON NEW LEGOLAND THEME PARK ATTRACTION

BY ASHLEY PAULS LEGOLAND PHOTO COURTESY OF LEGOLAND PRESS ROOM PROFILE PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRIS JADWIN ’02

When he was young, Chris Jadwin ’02 remembers asking for the same thing every year at Christmas: a set of Construx plastic building toys from Fisher-Price.

“I liked building stuff when I was little,” he said.

As it turns out, Jadwin still likes “building stuff” — as a project executive for commercial construction company Swinerton, he now oversees a growing portfolio of building projects covering a variety of industries, including healthcare, office buildings, higher education, entertainment and, more recently, amusement parks.

In October 2018, Swinerton began working on a project for Legoland California, an amusement park based on the widely popular toy brand known for its colorful plastic interlocking bricks — a true dream come true for a kid who grew up dreaming of building his own creations.

Jadwin grew up in Hiawatha, Kansas, and graduated from Kansas State University in

2002 with a degree in construction science and management. He spent more than a decade with general contracting firm Rudolph and Sletten Inc. before transferring to Swinerton in 2013. He typically works on 3-5 active design/construction projects at any one time, assembling teams and managing schedules, budgets and other details. Jadwin said Swinerton was approached by a variety of industries, including healthcare, office Merlin Entertainments — a U.K. company owning

a series of Legoland parks, including sites in Florida, Tokyo and London — to assist with a new area at the California park that would be based on the Lego film franchise, including The Lego Movie and The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.

One of the biggest projects for the park is a “flying theater” similar in style to Disney World’s “Soarin’” ride.

The new Legoland ride, called “Emmet’s Flying Adventure,” has three tiers that each have their own gondolas. The ride is inspired by Lego movie character Emmett (voiced in the films by Chris Pratt) and his famous triple-decker sofa. After park visitors enter the ride, they’re seated in the gondolas, which then rotate 180 degrees and extend beyond a ledge, facing a 100foot concave screen.

The 4D ride moves up and down and side to side, and includes audio/visual features, physical effects like spraying water and even scents like marshmallows.

“You’re completely immersed, so when the screen comes on, it actually feels like you’re on the ride,” Jadwin said. “It offers a lot more range of movement. You’re ‘free-falling’ to a degree. It’s pretty interactive.”

Jadwin said the ride presented Swinerton with an exciting logistics challenge: balancing safety guidelines and housing the sheer physical weight of the ride inside a building, while also making sure all the parts function together smoothly.

“We had to really strategize and figure out how to approach it,” he said.

Construction began in March 2019, and due to the global pandemic, the grand opening took place on May 27, 2021. Beforehand, Swinerton constructed a themed barricade wall to protect the construction site while also giving park visitors a peek at what was coming.

“It’s caused a lot of excitement,” Jadwin said.

Swinerton’s work for Legoland also included two hydraulic drop towers for a new ride called “UniKitty’s Disco Drop, Queen Watevra’s Carousel, Emmet’s Super Suite and Benny’s Playship.”

Jadwin is looking forward to helping Swinerton expand into more theme park related projects in the future, and he credits his K-State experience for enabling him to succeed in life outside of college.

“I do believe at K-State, you get more of an intimate class setting,” Jadwin said. “You knew a lot of your professors. They do a good job of how you structure the classes you take in your degree path.” classes you take in your degree path.”

Chris Jadwin ’02

BUILDING A CAREER

In addition to Legoland, Chris Jadwin lists some of these past projects as career highlights:

$90 million new dormitory for UC San Diego, featuring study spaces, a great hall/cafeteria and apartment-style living

University of San Diego – School of Leadership and Education Sciences site, which at time of construction was a one-of-a-kind facility with an interactive virtual conference room that allowed live streaming

Community park in Eastlake Village in San Diego, California, including a skate park, multi-purpose eld and indoor gym

Football stadium at Oceanside High School in California

195,000 square-foot life sciences facility in San Diego