The maze will consist of 2.5 miles of pathways, enveloping visitors in eight-foot cornstalks filed with twists, turns and dead ends. According to Doug Goff, Sienna general manager, "It will take one to three hours to solve the puzzle and emerge from the maze. The experience will be fun, challenging, and educational, since there are many ways to apply science, geography, history, art, math and engineering concepts to the process of discovery."
The "maze craze" began in 1993 when Don Frantz, a Disney producer, and Adrian Fisher, the world's leading maze designer, broke the Guinness book of world records with a 126,000-square-foot cornfield maze in Pennsylvania.
LJA will provide construction staking for the field, setting 60-foot cells which will then be subdivided with 1-foot grid lines. Each cell will be cut to match a CAD generated pattern corresponding to each of the individual cells. Says Senior Project Manager Jerrold L. Graham, Jr., "Once completed, the cells will match up, much like a puzzle, to create the overall maze design."
Planting day was July 15, 2002, and the maze will be cut out in mid-August when the corn is only 12 inches high, after which it will then grow to its ultimate eight-foot height. Visitors will be allowed to begin their winding journey at September 27's grand opening and continue through the event's week-long finale entitled "Fields of Screams" which will coincide with Halloween.
The event will donate all proceeds to the Fort Bend Family YMCA's capital campaign.
