[ingamba]

We all know that when Walt came up with the idea of EPCOT, he wanted it to be a community where people actually lived and worked. An Experimental Prototypic Community of Tomorrow. He didn't plan on it being a theme park. When he died in planning WDW his idea of EPCOT kind of got pushed to the back burner.

Later, Imagineers revived his idea of EPCOT but realized that a livable community wasn't feasible so the Epcot theme park that we all know and love was born.

Now, there is Celebration, which actually IS a living working community. So I wanted to open a discussio on this subject. I know there are a lot of Disney historians out there. What do you think? Is Celebration close to Walt's image of EPCOT?

[tigger]

No not even close. If you get the Tomorrow Land classic tin, it has Walt explaining his plan for EPCOT.

After watching Walt for 20 minutes explaining his vision for EPCOT all I can say is BUILD IT ALREADY!

[Erin]

What Classic Tin are you talking about? I'd like to know what Walt envisioned.

[ingamba]

I'm not sure what tin he is referring to, but for starters, here is a quick summary of Walt's vision.

this was taken from Wikepedia

The planned community
The name Epcot derives from the acronym EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow), a utopian city of the future planned by Walt Disney. (He sometimes used the word 'City' instead of 'Community' when expanding the acronym.) In Walt Disney's words: "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 and 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's original vision of EPCOT was for a model community, home to twenty thousand residents, which would be a test bed for city planning and organization. The community was to have been built in the shape of a circle, with businesses and commercial areas at its center, community buildings and schools and recreational complexes around it, and residential neighborhoods along the perimeter. Transportation would have been provided by monorails and PeopleMovers (like the one in the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland). Automobile traffic would be kept underground, leaving pedestrians safe above-ground. A giant dome was to have covered the community, so as to regulate its climate. Walt Disney said, "It will be a planned, controlled community, a showcase for American industry and research, schools, cultural and educational opportunities. In EPCOT there will be no slum areas because we won't let them develop. There will be no landowners and therefore no voting control. People will rent houses instead of buying them, and at modest rentals. There will be no retirees; everyone must be employed." The original model of this original vision of EPCOT can still be seen by passengers riding the Tomorrowland Transit Authority attraction in the Magic Kingdom park; when the PeopleMover enters the showhouse for Stitch's Great Escape, the model is visible on the left behind glass.

This vision was not realized. Walt Disney wasn't able to obtain funding and permission to start work on his Florida property until he agreed to build the Magic Kingdom first, and he passed away before its opening day. The Walt Disney Company later decided that it didn't want to be in the business of running a town. (The model community of Celebration, Florida has been mentioned as a realization of Disney's original vision, but Celebration is based on concepts of new urbanism which is radically different from Disney's modernist and futurist visions.) However, the idea of EPCOT was instrumental in prompting the state of Florida to create the Reedy Creek Improvement District and the Cities of Bay Lake and Reedy Creek (soon renamed Lake Buena Vista), a legislative mechanism which allows the Walt Disney Company to exercise governmental powers over Walt Disney World. Control over the RCID is vested in the landowners of the district, and the promise of an actual city in the district would have meant that the powers of the RCID would have been distributed among the landowners in EPCOT. Because the idea of EPCOT was never implemented, the Disney Corporation remained almost the sole landowner in the district allowing it to maintain control of the RCID and the cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista. Disney's intent appears to be that it wishes to keep the RCID as an instrument of the company, as witnessed by the method by which the RCID redrew its boundaries to exclude Celebration rather than allow Celebration's resident landowners to dilute Disney's control over the RCID.

[tigger]

Originally Posted by Erin

What Classic Tin are you talking about? I'd like to know what Walt envisioned.

The Tomorrow Land tin. I got it just for the EPCOT piece...it is Awesome.

[Cavey]

What I've seen of Celebration is little more than a glorified subdivision.

Honestly, Walt's vision of Epcot assumes the best in people. I'm a bit too cynical to ever believe it could have worked.

[tigger]

Originally Posted by Cavey

...

Honestly, Walt's vision of Epcot assumes the best in people. I'm a bit too cynical to ever believe it could have worked.

I have to agree with you Cavey on that but there are so many great ideas from transportation layers to mix use and green space. Walt was way ahead of his time of putting a lot of these ideas together.

I dream of commuting to work via monorail and WEDway everyday as I sit in traffic

There is more information on Walts vision of EPCOT here: http://www.waltopia.com/

[Park Hopper]

No, Celebration isn't anything close to what Walt Disney envisioned. And now that the core downtown area no longer is owned by the Walt Disney Co., it will probably grow even more distant from what Walt had in mind.

[c-palace]

I don't think the Celebration is very close. Sure it has the same ideas as EPCOT, but Walt probably had a more better idea then what we think of as his idea. If that makes any sense.