When Walt was alive his plan for EPCOT was to be an experimental prototype community........

[Serrina89]

When Walt was alive his plan for EPCOT was to be an experimental prototype community of tomorrow so who designed EPCOT as it is now with World Showcase and Future World? Any background information on this would be awesome!!!!

 

[JimmyV]

Here's a good read:
http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/news/a35104/walt-disney-epcot-history-city-of-tomorrow/

A bit of personal trivia...
When he was alive and in the planning stages of E.P.C.O.T., Walt contacted my father to discuss with him the logistics of starting up a "state of the future" public education system for the community. My dad provided whatever advice Walt wanted, but turned down the position of heading up the school system. Privately my dad thought that Walt was a megalomaniac and a bit nuts and didn't want to relocate his family to a swamp in Central Florida for what would likely have been a failed experiment. But he loved WDW when it eventually got built!

 

[Serrina89]

Thanks so much, I can't wait to read this!!!!

 

[Emily Gilmore]

Thanks for sharing that link. I love reading about the history of Walt/WDW.

 

[MasterGracey84]

Anyone want to guess how happy the Florida legislature was when it was decided his original plan would not come to be? lol

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

Epcot always fascinates me. Where it came from, and what it is now.

World Showcase is well defined and a lot of fun.

Future World is very odd. I do enjoy it a lot...but it doesn't seem like the kind of place you'd build from scratch. It's leftover remnants of a long forgotten idea...

Tomorrowland in MK is better defined (aesthetically speaking) as an ode to the future that never was .

 

[GaryDis]

In the early days of Epcot, the comparison with Tomorrowland was reversed. Epcot was new, interesting, and exciting. Tomorrowland, with the exception of Space Mountain, was stale, dated, and stagnant.

 

[LOL!]

A bit of personal trivia...

That's really cool!

 

[Micca]

Walt's version would have been cool, but I'm not sure how much of a tourist attraction it would have been. I sure would like to have had the chance to live in Walt's park though!

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

After Walt's passing, the Disney design teams flatly did not believe Walt's idea of Epcot could ever work.

The teams ended up working on two possible parks being developed . One future world, to follow Walt's idea of a park with the future in it and the other a park with other countries, (remember Walt was big at the 1964/65 New York Worlds fair).

I don't remember the names of the design teams members, but there were two large table top models of the designs they had and they were all debating how to move forward. One fellow just looked up, walked to the models and pushed them together........Vola!..............EPCOT.

AKK

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Walt's version would have been cool, but I'm not sure how much of a tourist attraction it would have been. I sure would like to have had the chance to live in Walt's park though!

I don't believe Walt ever intended Epcot to be a tourist attract, it was indeed to be a living City with people. That is one reason he had the MK built there.

AKK

 

[mrsR123]

After Walt's passing, the Disney design teams flatly did not believe Walt's idea of Epcot could ever work.

The teams ended up working on two possible parks being developed . One future world, to follow Walt's idea of a park with the future in it and the other a park with other countries, (remember Walt was big at the 1964/65 New York Worlds fair).

I don't remember the names of the design teams members, but there were two large table top models of the designs they had and they were all debating how to move forward. One fellow just looked up, walked to the models and pushed them together........Vola!..............EPCOT.

AKK

I'm pretty sure I've seen video of Marty Sklar describing that process. There might even have been photos of the tables in question.

 

[ChloesDaddy]

I'm pretty sure I've seen video of Marty Sklar describing that process. There might even have been photos of the tables in question.

I remember seeing this too. I think it was included in the Travel Channel "Ultimate Walt Disney World" special.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

I so want to live in an experimental prototype community of tomorrow. I believe that if Walt were alive today he would find a way to make it successful. Any other Walts out there? I'll work with you. Let's build it!

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

Here's a good read:
http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/news/a35104/walt-disney-epcot-history-city-of-tomorrow/

A bit of personal trivia...
When he was alive and in the planning stages of E.P.C.O.T., Walt contacted my father to discuss with him the logistics of starting up a "state of the future" public education system for the community. My dad provided whatever advice Walt wanted, but turned down the position of heading up the school system. Privately my dad thought that Walt was a megalomaniac and a bit nuts and didn't want to relocate his family to a swamp in Central Florida for what would likely have been a failed experiment. But he loved WDW when it eventually got built!



View attachment 112980

What a neat story! I so wish I could meet Walt Disney today. I love nutty megalomaniacs. They do seem to accomplish so much.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

I'm pretty sure I've seen video of Marty Sklar describing that process. There might even have been photos of the tables in question.

Very possible that is where I heard the story, but I believe I read somewhere as well.

AKK

 

[Monykalyn]

very cool @JimmyV ! One can only wonder how things might be different today if Walt had lived to see EPCOT as originally intended....

 

[goofyernmost]

I know this will not be a popular response, but, if Walt had lived to see his dream come true, The Disney Company would have gone bankrupt years ago and there would no longer be a Disney park that wasn't owned by someone else. It was a huge idea, but, it really couldn't be a sustainable concept. It relied to much on Corporate participation and in affect it was a guinea pig concept where new ideas would be tried out on the populace which would have been comprised mostly of Disney employees.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

I know this will not be a popular response, but, if Walt had lived to see his dream come true, The Disney Company would have gone bankrupt years ago and there would no longer be a Disney park that wasn't owned by someone else. It was a huge idea, but, it really couldn't be a sustainable concept. It relied to much on Corporate participation and in affect it was a guinea pig concept where new ideas would be tried out on the populace which would have been comprised mostly of Disney employees.

Isn't that something like what people said when Walt came up with the idea for both Disneyland and Disney World? He had a lot of detractors who thought his ideas were nuts and would be complete financial failures, yet he (and his people, of course) made them work.

Never know what might have been.

 

[goofyernmost]

Isn't that something like what people said when Walt came up with the idea for both Disneyland and Disney World? He had a lot of detractors who thought his ideas were nuts and would be complete financial failures, yet he made them work.

Never know what might have been.

There was a huge difference between Disneyland and what he had in mind for EPCOT. EPCOT was a community that you lived in permanently. As a resident you would have been ruled by Disney, every action or reaction would have had to be controlled by "big brother", in this case Disney. You would have had to go to their schools, drive on their streets, accept whatever new technology that was presented whether it was good or not. Use only their transportation and basically be a ward of the state.

The intentions were wonderful, but, to think that people, that get upset when things don't go their way, no matter how minor, would find that way of life enjoyable or something that they would do for any length of time. During business downturns, what would happen if supporting corporations could no longer afford to provide the newest of technologies. Pretty much the same thing that happened to the corporations that sponsored most of the pavilions in what became Epcot Ctr., they never renewed their contracts and left Disney to finance what was needed. That is just the tip of the iceberg when it came to making it work.

I wish I could say that Walt could have made it work, but, I really believe that this time he had bitten off way more than anybody could chew. Disney, under Eisner, did attempt a community called Celebration, and within a few years found it impossible to operate in any desired sense so they sold off the properties and it became just a town like any other town in Florida. I just didn't work.