Unfinished concept for a planned community
This article is about the unrealized concept. For its theme park successor, see
Epcot
.
"Florida Project" redirects here. For the 2017 film, see
The Florida Project
.
The
Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow
, shortened to
EPCOT
or
E.P.C.O.T.
, was an unfinished concept for a
planned community
, intended to sit on a swath of
undeveloped
land near
Orlando, Florida
. It was created by
Walt Disney
in collaboration with the designers at
Walt Disney Imagineering
in the 1960s.
[1]
[2]
Based on ideas stemming from
modernism
and
futurism
, and inspired by architectural literature about
city planning
, Disney intended EPCOT to be a
utopian
autocratic
company town
. One of the primary stated aims of EPCOT was to replace
urban sprawl
as the organizing force of community planning in the
United States
in the 1960s. Disney intended EPCOT to be a real city, and it was planned to feature
commercial
,
residential
, industrial, and recreational centers, connected by a mass
multimodal transportation
system, that would, he said, "Never cease to be a living blueprint of the future".
[3]
[4]
Following Disney's death in 1966, EPCOT plans were shelved. In 1971, Walt Disney World emerged, with EPCOT opening in 1982 as a theme park and influencing the nearby community of
Celebration, Florida
.
[5]
Elements from the original EPCOT vision endured, shaping aspects of the modern Disney World park, such as the
Monorail
System and the
Utilidor
system.
History
[
edit
]
EPCOT will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed but will always be introducing, testing, and demonstrating new materials and systems. And EPCOT will always be a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise.
? Walt Disney, describing the genesis of EPCOT
Forerunners of Disney's EPCOT plan include
Tomorrowland
in
Disneyland
, which already featured monorails and
People Movers
, and the
Monsanto House of the Future
(1957), which was designed by
architects
from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
. Architect/planner
Victor Gruen
's plans to convert the site of the
1964 New York World's Fair
was also a significant influence on EPCOT, Disney
Imagineer
Marty Sklar
said.
[7]
[8]
Concerned with the "urban crisis" of the time, which he believed was one of the biggest problems facing society,
[9]
Disney also consulted urban planning literature, including books by
Ebenezer Howard
, founder of the architectural "
garden city movement
", and Victor Gruen.
Location
[
edit
]
Numerous locations were proposed for EPCOT, including
St. Louis
,
Niagara Falls
,
Washington D.C.
,
New Jersey
, and
New York City
's
World Fair site
.
[10]
Disney also considered incorporating an experimental city into his plans for a
Palm Beach, Florida
development with
RCA
and investor
John D. MacArthur
in 1959.
[11]
Eventually,
Central Florida
was chosen.
[10]
Commenting on the choice, Disney said, "Here in
Florida
we've enjoyed something that we've never enjoyed at Disneyland: a blessing of size. There's enough land here to hold all the ideas and plans we could possibly imagine."
[12]
The plans for "The Florida Project," officially dubbed Disney World, called for a
Disneyland-style theme park
and
resort area
, EPCOT, an
industrial park
, an
airport
, and an entrance complex.
Disney quietly purchased undeveloped
wetlands
in
Osceola County
and
Orange County
using
dummy corporations
to avoid
price gouging
. By June 1965, Disney had acquired 27,433 acres?twice the size of
Manhattan
?for an estimated $5.1 million ($49,308,976 in 2023).
[10]
[13]
Walt Disney had planned to announce Disney World on November 15, 1965, publicly. Still, after the
Orlando Sentinel
broke the story of Disney's land purchase, Disney asked then-Florida Governor
Haydon Burns
to confirm the story on October 25. His announcement boasted that the new theme park would be, "The greatest attraction in the history of Florida."
[14]
The official announcement was made on the previously planned November 15 date, with Disney joining Burns in Orlando for the press conference.
[14]
Dissatisfied with the
zoning
regulations he had to deal with in
Anaheim
, Disney developed the
Reedy Creek Improvement District
(RCID) for the
property
. With the approval of the
Florida legislature
and the governor, as enshrined in the
Reedy Creek Improvement Act
, the District had most of the powers of a Florida county.
The EPCOT film
[
edit
]
To lobby the Florida legislature to approve the RCID and persuade
American
industries to participate in the project, a
short film
was shot at the
Walt Disney Studios
on October 27, 1966, two months before Disney's death.
[10]
Written by
Marty Sklar
and directed by
Ham Luske
, the 25-minute film is hosted by Disney, who explains the plans for Disney World, focusing on how EPCOT would interrelate with other aspects of the property.
[15]
The film, utilizing
concept art
and highly technical
animation
, was a start to the conceptualization of EPCOT. The EPCOT philosophy, as it became known, included showcasing the development, testing, and use of new materials and ideas from American industries to find solutions to urban problems. EPCOT would always be in a state of becoming, the philosophy detailed, focusing on the needs and happiness of residents, and generating demand for new technologies.
[9]
The film was screened for Florida legislators on February 2, 1967.
[10]
On May 18, 2004, the film, entitled
Walt Disney Treasures: Tomorrow Land
,
was released.
[16]
Master plan and community site
[
edit
]
1966 proposed
monorail route
|
|
|
|
|
|
Magic Kingdom
|
|
|
|
|
EPCOT city
|
|
|
|
|
EPCOT Industrial Park
|
|
|
|
|
Welcome Center
|
|
|
|
|
Airport of Tomorrow
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Disney personally sketched a master plan for the Florida property known as the Seventh Preliminary Master Plot Plan, in 1966, the year of his death. The main features of the plan include the
Magic Kingdom
, hotels, camps and motels, convention facilities, EPCOT and a satellite community, a
golf course
, a "swamp ride", an industrial park, a tourist trailer camp, a main entrance, and a "jet airport". In addition, a monorail runs the length of the property.
[17]
Visitors would enter at the southern end of the property and be shuttled by monorail to the Disney World Welcome Center. There, they would be welcomed by "
cast members
" able to speak the guests' languages. Visitors would re-board the monorail to arrive at the industrial park.
[18]
There, guests would ride people-movers to see warehouses and research and development laboratories from American industry.
[9]
Walt hoped visitors could take ideas back home to improve their communities.
[18]
After visiting the industrial park, the monorail would take the guests to EPCOT, where they would arrive under the central city.
[9]
The EPCOT city, according to the concepts presented in the EPCOT film, was based on a radial plan, a design inspired by the
garden city movement
of urban planning. Based on a concept similar to the layout of Disneyland Park, the city radiates out like a wheel from a central core.
[18]
The
urban density
of the area would decrease as the city stretched out.
The dome
In an article by famed
architectural historian
Ada Louise Huxtable
, "Out of a Fair, A City", which appeared in
Horizon magazine
in May 1960, Huxtable discusses architect Gruen's vision for a plastic dome over an international
bazaar
in the central city. There had been much speculation about a dome for EPCOT over the years. Gruen's plan may have been an influence.
An official of the Reedy Creek Improvement District recalled that a dome would pose fire safety issues. None of the Imagineering artwork shows the international shopping center open to a dome. However, the Florida Film does include a dome "enclosure". Walt Disney died in December 1966, while much of the EPCOT source material was produced in 1967. It is difficult to separate what Walt outlined and what was published in 1967.
[
according to whom?
]
Architect
Jon Jerde
stated that a glass dome over 50 acres would have been "daunting" due to its cost.
[
citation needed
]
Walt Disney was known for striving for the impossible, which may explain the plan for a dome.
[
citation needed
]
Walt Disney talked about the
Houston Astrodome
and a
New York Times
article mentioned a dome. The dome was likely another element Walt was wrestling with the complications and difficulties of construction before his death.
[
citation needed
]
Transportation
[
edit
]
The city would be connected to the other points in Disney World with a main line of transportation?the monorail. Walt Disney introduced the
Disneyland Monorail
in 1959. The monorail would cut through the center of the city, connecting EPCOT with the northern and southern points of the Disney World property.
Internal transportation would be provided by a new Disney transportation concept, the
WED way
People Mover
. The system uses motors located between the tracks to propel vehicles along a pair of steel rails. People Mover cars would transport residents from the metropolitan center to the outer residential areas. The People Mover concept was first demonstrated at Disneyland's
Tomorrowland
in 1967. The People Mover was also installed at the Magic Kingdom as the WED Way People Mover in 1975.
Because of these two modes of transportation, residents of EPCOT would not need cars. If a resident-owned a car, it would be used "only for weekend pleasure trips."
[
citation needed
]
The streets for cars would be kept separate from the main pedestrian areas. The main roads for both cars and supply trucks would travel underneath the city core, eliminating the risk of pedestrian accidents. This was also based on the concept that Walt Disney devised for Disneyland. He did not want his guests to see behind-the-scenes activity, such as supply trucks delivering goods to the city. Like the
Magic Kingdom
in
Walt Disney World
, all supplies are discreetly delivered via tunnels.
The two systems, the monorail, and People Mover, would come together at the EPCOT Transportation Lobby. The Transportation Lobby would be located at ground level, above the busy automobile/truck roads. From the Lobby, a passenger riding the monorail from the Magic Kingdom Park to their home would disembark the monorail and transfer to the appropriate People Mover station.
Beyond EPCOT, the Airport of Tomorrow, situated opposite the Main Entrance, was planned to connect to the park via a monorail station.
The planned airport would have had a general aviation area with an executive terminal, and another for regional passenger travel with a large terminal building.
[19]
Plans identified the airport in 1966 but were not present in the revised plans in the later 1970s.
City center
[
edit
]
EPCOT's downtown and commercial areas would have been located in the central core of the city, away from the residential areas. The entire
downtown
would have been completely enclosed, unaffected by the outside elements.
Roy Disney
stated that "The pedestrian will be king"
[20]
in this area, free from the danger of cars and other vehicles.
At the center of the area would be a 30-story Cosmopolitan Hotel and
Convention Center
. This building was to have been the tallest in Disney World and could have been seen for miles. The parking lot for hotel guests would have been located underneath the city core, right off of the vehicle throughway.
On the "roof" of the enclosed area would be the recreational area for hotel guests. The pool, tennis courts, basketball courts,
shuffleboard
, and other activities would have been located here. According to Imagineer
Bob Gurr
, Walt Disney pointed to one of the benches on the scale model of the area and declared, "This is where Lilly [his wife] and I will sit when this thing is finished, taking everything in".
[
citation needed
]
Surrounding the hotel, inside the enclosure, would have been "shops and restaurants that reflect the culture and flavor of locations 'round the world."
[
citation needed
]
According to the concept art, these areas would be themed to resemble each
country
, having the look and feel of each of the exotic locales. This concept eventually evolved into the
World Showcase
area of the
Epcot
theme park. The PeopleMover track would travel above these downtown shops and streets similarly as the system did in Disneyland. The preliminary plan indicated that the people who would have worked in these shops would have also lived in the city.
Green belt
[
edit
]
Separating the city core from the
low-density residential
area would be an expanse of grass areas, known to the planners as the "green belt." This is where the city services would be located. Establishments such as parks with playgrounds, community centers, schools, stadiums, and churches would be located here.
Residential areas
[
edit
]
On the rim of the city core would have been
high-density apartment housing
. This is where most of EPCOT's 20,000 citizens would have lived. Not much is discussed about the apartments themselves, although Walt Disney stated that no one in EPCOT would own their land. There would be no difference between an apartment and a home. All renting rates would be modest and competitive with the surrounding market. Housing would be constructed in such a way as to ensure ease of change so that new ideas/products could be used. A person returning from a hard day's work could very well come home to a kitchen with brand-new appliances in it.
Beyond the Green Belt were the low-density, single-family house neighborhoods. These areas would have resembled the petals on a flower, with the houses located on the rim of each "petal". Inside the "petal" was a vast green area. The area would have had paths for electric carts, light recreation areas for adults, and play areas for children. The People Mover station for each area would have also been located in the green area. The resident could simply walk to the station from their home and on to work. As with the apartments, the houses would be built to be easily changed.
Living and employment
[
edit
]
As no one living in EPCOT would own their own land or home, residents would have no municipal voting rights (bond issues, etc.). Walt Disney wanted to exercise this control only to be able to change technology in homes easily.
[
citation needed
]
According to the film, all adults living in EPCOT would be employed, thereby preventing the formation of
slums
and
ghettos
. There would be no retirees?everyone would be required to have a job. Residents would be employed at the
Magic Kingdom
theme park, the city's central core shopping areas, the hotel/convention center, the airport, the Welcome Center, or the industrial park. As the film states, "Everyone living in EPCOT will have the responsibility to maintain this living
blueprint
of the future".
[21]
General Electric's Progress City model
[
edit
]
The
Carousel of Progress
, sponsored by
General Electric
, was one of four of Walt Disney's pavilions at the
1964-1965 New York World's Fair
(known as Progress and there). The show consisted of
Audio-Animatronic
"actors" presenting the progress of household technology through the decades. The same "family" was used for each period. Guests were seated in an outer ring of six theaters that rotated around a fixed, circular stage. The Disneyland version of the Carousel opened in July 1967 and featured a huge, one-eighth-scale model called
Progress City
. It could be viewed on foot or from the
PeopleMover
attraction in Tomorrowland. The model was constructed after Walt's death but featured the basic elements of the EPCOT plan: city center and hotel, high-density apartments, greenbelt, and single-family houses.
The model measured 6,900 square feet and included 22,000 trees and shrubs, 4,500 buildings lit from within, 1,400 streetlights, a climate-controlled center city, amusement park rides in motion, sports stadiums, an airport, an
atomic power plant
, underground passageways, single-family
cul-de-sacs
, retail stores, monorails, electric sidewalks, schools, churches, electric trains, electric carts, and PeopleMovers. The city was all-electric.
[22]
The show's theme song, "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow," was written by the
Sherman brothers
[
citation needed
]
and reflects Walt's view of progress and American industry.
[
citation needed
]
General Electric and
Westinghouse
had been in
merger
discussions with the Disney organization, but a deal never came to fruition. EPCOT would be an expensive proposition. In a 1968 print advertisement, General Electric announced that it had "much of the technology needed ... But as futuristic as it sounds, it could be built today." The ad also featured a photograph of Progress City. General Electric was prepared to tackle EPCOT.
[23]
Disneyland's Carousel of Progress closed in 1973 and the show was moved to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in 1975. A portion of the Progress City architectural model is on display on the
Tomorrowland Transit Authority People Mover
today, located in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom.
[24]
EPCOT after Disney
[
edit
]
Walt Disney died on December 15, 1966. According to his older brother
Roy Disney
, Walt was still planning EPCOT in the hospital in the days before he died.
[25]
Walt used the ceiling grid to lay out a scale plot plan in his imagination, each 24" x 24" tile representing one square mile. Florida Governor
Claude R. Kirk Jr.
signed Chapter 67-764
[26]
into law on May 12, 1967, establishing the
Reedy Creek Improvement District
. However, Disney directors eventually decided that it was too risky to venture into city planning now that its biggest advocate was gone.
[27]
Roy persisted and took the reins on the project, coming out of retirement, but he could not convince the board to build EPCOT. The Magic Kingdom project proceeded with construction beginning the same year under the supervision of Roy, and Walt Disney World Resort opened in October 1971 with only the Magic Kingdom and two hotels. Roy insisted it be called Walt Disney World as a tribute to the man who had dreamed it up.
[28]
Even though the city was never built, the Resort represents some of the forward-thinking planning that embodied Walt's idea of EPCOT. Because of the formation of the
RCID
, Disney could find innovative solutions to the problems of transportation, building construction, supplying electrical power, and waste disposal. Imagineers, including
John Hench
and
Richard Irvine
, devised means of waste disposal and sewer transport. The monorail, while mainly an attraction at Disneyland, was utilized as an actual transportation system, taking guests some thirteen miles around the Resort area. The
Contemporary Resort
opened with the Magic Kingdom as an architectural remnant of EPCOT's modernist aesthetic.
Without Walt Disney's leadership, EPCOT's progress was "seriously weakened."
[29]
In the late 1970s, Disney
CEO
Card Walker
wanted to revisit the EPCOT idea, but the board was still wary, and all agreed that Walt's EPCOT would not work in its initial incarnation; they thought that no one would want to live under a microscope and be watched constantly.
[30]
The result of the compromise was the
EPCOT Center
theme park (now simply known as
EPCOT
), which opened in 1982. While still emulating Walt Disney's ideas, it was not a city, but rather closer to that of a
World's Fair
. EPCOT, somewhat true to Walt Disney's vision, revolves around technology and the future in the
Future World
area. The
World Showcase
is an embellished version of the downtown shopping area, albeit without the enclosure.
In the early 1990s, the Walt Disney Company built a community on the Florida property called
Celebration
. It is a
planned community
that employs some of the ideas that Walt Disney envisioned but on a significantly smaller scale. Unlike EPCOT, which was based on modernism and futurism, there is no radial design for Celebration. Celebration is designed based on
new urbanism
, and resembles a small American town, but has all the modern conveniences, without the revolutionary transportation ideas contained in the plans for EPCOT. Similar planned communities, known as
lifestyle centers
, are now being built by other planners.
In the early 1970s, the city of
Rotonda West, Florida
near to
Punta Gorda
on Florida's Gulf of Mexico coastline, was created. The city uses a circular grid layout, divided into eight sections and a central hub, similar to a wagon wheel.
[31]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Barrier, J. Michael (2007).
The animated man : a life of Walt Disney
. Berkeley: University of California Press.
ISBN
978-0-520-24117-6
.
OCLC
70864455
.
- ^
Acuna, Kirsten (June 26, 2012).
"Walt Disney's Original Plan For Epcot Sounded Like An Eerie Futuristic Dystopia"
.
businessinsider.com
. Retrieved
October 20,
2020
.
- ^
Gennawey, Sam (2011).
Walt Disney and the Promise of Progress City
. Theme Park Press. pp. xiii.
ISBN
978-1941500262
.
- ^
Bowers, Alan.
"FUTURE WORLD(S): A Critique of Disney's EPCOT and Creating a Futuristic Curriculum"
.
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
: 58, 74?75, 84?85, 99?105 – via Georgia Southern University College of Graduate Studies.
- ^
"Epcot ? Disney ? Orlando"
.
orlandoviagem.com.br
. 2012-06-27. Archived from
the original
on 2012-09-06
. Retrieved
2012-06-27
.
- ^
Huxtable, Ada Louise (May 1960). "Out of a Fair, a City".
Horizon
.
- ^
Green, Amy Boothe and Howard E. (1999).
Remembering Walt
. New York: Hyperion. p. 175.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Disney, Walt (1966).
Florida Film
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Patches, Matt (May 20, 2015).
"Inside Walt Disney's Ambitious, Failed Plan to Build the City of Tomorrow"
.
Esquire
. Retrieved
October 20,
2020
.
- ^
Mannheim, Steve (2017).
Walt Disney and the Quest for Community
(First ed.). Oxfordshire and New York: Routledge. p. 67.
ISBN
978-1-138-26968-2
.
- ^
Disney, Walt. "Florida Film".
- ^
1634?1699:
McCusker, J. J.
(1997).
How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda
(PDF)
.
American Antiquarian Society
.
1700?1799:
McCusker, J. J.
(1992).
How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States
(PDF)
.
American Antiquarian Society
.
1800?present:
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
"Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800?"
. Retrieved
February 29,
2024
.
- ^
a
b
Mark Andrews (August 6, 2000).
"Disney Pulled Strings So Mouse Moved In With Barely A Squeak"
.
Orlando Sentinel
.
Archived
from the original on September 10, 2015
. Retrieved
September 10,
2015
.
- ^
"E.P.C.O.T Film - The Original E.P.C.O.T Project"
.
google.com
. Retrieved
18 September
2015
.
- ^
"Tomorrowland DVD Review"
.
DVD Dizzy
. Retrieved
14 February
2021
.
- ^
Mannheim, Steve (2017).
Walt Disney and the Quest for Community
(First ed.). Oxfordshire and New York: Routledge. pp. 4?5.
ISBN
978-1-138-26968-2
.
- ^
a
b
c
Defunctland: Walt Disney's City of the Future, E.P.C.O.T.
, retrieved
2024-02-03
- ^
"Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Florida, Southwestern Orlando area"
.
www.airfields-freeman.com
.
- ^
Engineering News-record, Volume 179
. McGraw-Hill. 1967. p. 19.
The pedestrian will be king, says Roy Disney
- ^
"THE ORIGINAL E.P.C.O.T - Introduction"
.
sites.google.com
. Retrieved
2023-11-23
.
- ^
Anderson, Paul F. "A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow: Walt Disney & World's Fairs".
Persistence of Vision
.
6/7
: 117?118.
- ^
Mannheim, Steve (2011).
Walt Disney and the Quest for Community
(Second ed.). BookLocker.com, Inc. p. xxi.
ISBN
978-1-61434-241-0
.
- ^
Fickley-Baker, Jennifer (August 11, 2011).
"A Closer Look at the Progress City Model at Magic Kingdom Park"
.
Disney Parks Blog
. Retrieved
December 27,
2018
.
- ^
Mosley, Leonard (1985).
Disney's World: A Biography
. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 298.
ISBN
978-0-8128-3073-6
.
- ^
"THE ORIGINAL E.P.C.O.T - The Reedy Creek Improvement District"
.
sites.google.com
. Retrieved
2023-11-23
.
- ^
Citation Needed
- ^
Ruby, Catherine (2023-05-04).
"RUBY: The Happiest Place on Earth"
.
The Sentinel-Echo
. Retrieved
2023-11-23
.
- ^
Mannheim, Steve (2002).
Walt Disney and the quest for community
. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate.
ISBN
978-0-7546-8025-3
.
OCLC
320322738
.
- ^
"Should the city of Epcot have been built ?"
.
the-original-epcot.com
. Archived from
the original
on December 28, 2015.
- ^
Alexander, Jack.
"Early Facts About Rotonda West"
. Retrieved
April 20,
2021
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Beard, Richard R. (1982).
Walt Disney's EPCOT Center: Creating the New World of Tomorrow
. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams.
ISBN
978-0-8109-0821-5
.
- Walt Disney and the Promise of Progress City
- 2014. Text written by Sam Gennaway. Published by Theme Park Press.
- Walt Disney and the Quest for Community
- 2017. Text written by Steve Mannheim. Published by Routledge.
ISBN
978-1-138-26968-2
.
- Florida Film
- 1966. Film. Script written by Walt Disney with Martin A. Sklar. Available on the "Tomorrowland" volume of the
Walt Disney Treasures
DVD series.
- Walt Disney's EPCOT Center
- 1982. Text written by Richard R. Beard. Published by
Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
ISBN
0-8109-0819-0
- Walt: The Man Behind the Myth
- 2001. Film. Written by Katherine and Richard Greene.
- Since the World Began
- 1996. Book written by Jeff Kurtti. Published by Hyperion.
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
Theme parks
|
|
---|
Beyond the parks
| |
---|
Resorts and
residential areas
|
|
---|
Transportation
| |
---|
Events and
festivities
| Resort
| |
---|
Magic Kingdom
| |
---|
Epcot
| |
---|
|
---|
Retired events,
former attractions,
and closed facilities
| |
---|
Notable people
| Past leaders
| |
---|
Current leaders
| |
---|
Other people
| |
---|
|
---|
Other
| |
---|
|
|
---|
Topics
| |
Attractions and History
| |
---|
Education
|
Primary and secondary schools
| |
---|
Landmarks
|
Community
| |
---|
Healthcare and Hospitality
| |
---|
Infrastructure
| |
---|
Transportation
| |
---|