Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow
“[EPCOT] will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed. It will always be showcasing and testing and demonstrating new materials and new systems.”
-Walt Disney
First and foremost- I’m obsessed with Disneyland and Disney World. A recent trip to the theme park in Anaheim has only exacerbated this.
In my obsession, I’ve been researching the theme parks and discussing them with anyone who will listen. And everyone I talk to about Walt Disney World loves them some EPCOT. I visited Disney World twice as a child, and even then, I was told how wonderful EPCOT Center was. I remember two things about it: “Spaceship Earth”–the iconic spherelike structure that science fiction author Ray Bradbury helped design–and a pair of nunchucks I got in the culturally rich shopping area.
But I’ve always wondered if there wasn’t something I missed.
It turns out that, being so young, there was an awful lot that I missed. But the most interesting thing I’ve learned is not about what EPCOT is, but what it was supposed to be. From what I’ve found, it sounds like Walt Disney himself might have even been a little disappointed by EPCOT Center. After all, what he originally had in mind was a whole world away from the it eventually became.
Q: What does EPCOT stand for?
A: EPCOT stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow
EPCOT was originally meant to be an actual city. The acronym stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Walt Disney imagined it as the birth of a new age in American urbanism and the cornerstone of his upcoming Walt Disney World Resort. Mr. Disney believed that the things he and his Imagineers had learned while building and refining Disneyland could be applied to actual communities, eliminating the hectic, dirty, and disorganized qualities that major urban centers suffer from.
Disney began buying up vast amounts of swampland in Florida, disguising the purchases through various dummy corporations. The land would comprise a new vision: Disney World (which, after Walt’s passing, his brother Roy insisted be called Walt Disney World).
Funding for EPCOT was dependent on a theme park being built first. The investors wanted assurance that people would actually come to Disney World. Walt relented and set forth making the Magic Kingdom, a Disneyland-esque theme park to be placed in the far corner of Disney World, so that visitors would have to pass through the rest of Disney World if they wanted to get to the park. Walt Disney died before the Magic Kingdom opened, and by the time they were ready to start on EPCOT, few still considered the city a viable business plan. Mr. Disney had not only conceived of the project, but had been its biggest supporter. With him dead, investors and Disney executives were wary of building a “Disney city.”
While we may never know exactly what EPCOT would have been like, we have glimpses into the concepts and designs behind the idea. For starters, the city was to be wheel shaped, with a network of transportation systems radiating out from the wheel’s hub, the “downtown” area.
Early Concept art for Walt Disney's EPCOT. This is a still from the 1966 promotional video featured at the end of this post.
The downtown area was to be the business and commerce center, with a cosmopolitan hotel and convention center at its core. Whole streets and shopping centers would be themed to recreate the atmospheres of places from all around the world. People could walk the streets without interference of automobiles–no cars would be allowed in the central city, only electric vehicles traveling above the streets.
Oh yeah, and the whole downtown area was to be enclosed in a giant dome. A bubble. A Disney bubble. This way, pesky things like rain and natural elements would never get in the way of people enjoying the city’s attractions and commerce.
Moving out from the wheel’s hub, the next area was for high density apartment housing. Then, a broad greenbelt– the recreation sector of the city. This is where the parks, playgrounds, churches and schools would go. The last layer would be the low-density suburban housing area.
The city would also feature industrial showcases where corporations could show off the many innovations going on in their industries and companies. It was to be a city of innovation, complete with an intricate, layered transportation design meant to completely eliminate the problem of traffic congestion. Disney whole-heartedly believed his Utopian community could work. “EPCOT will be a working community with employment for all,” he said. Even when he was in the hospital, dying from lung cancer, he continued imagining and planning his city.
EPCOT Center, now known simply as “Epcot,” was the compromise made after Walt’s death. Rather than a city, it became a theme park, employing a few of Disney’s radical ideas, but shying away from the “living community” that EPCOT was supposed to be.
The Epcot theme park resembles a World’s Fair, showcasing various cultures and cutting-edge technologies from around the world. It opened in 1981, and cost approximately $1 billion. At the time, it was the largest construction project on Earth.
Walt Disney’s original idea for a planned community didn’t die entirely, though.
In 1994, Disney opened “Celebration, Florida,” a new city built using some–but not many–of Walt’s original urban planning ideas.
I had never heard of Celebration until recently. But it turned out an old friend of mine had relatives who had lived there for a couple years. I called her up immediately.
“Have you been there?”
“Yeah, I’ve been there.”
“Tell me everything.”
“Well, all the houses were sort of manufactured, but they looked nicer. There’s only three color options: white, gray or tan,” she told me. The houses are divided into sections– Section A, Section B, etc. Every ten houses has a little pool of their own.
Celebration, Florida
“Is it creepy? Does everything have Disney plastered on it?”
“No, there’s not as much Disney as you’d think. They didn’t really promote the Disney stuff, but everything said ‘Celebration!’ on it.”
I asked her if it was “too perfect.”
“It’s a little boring. Kind of Stepford-looking, but it’s not as extravagent as you’re thinking. It’s more lower-middle class.”
The environment is extremely controlled. She told me of an old man who lived there. He painted the bottom step of his porch yellow, so he could actually see it. They made him paint it back.
“Everything is manicured and controlled. They even have a little car that drives around at night and sprays for mosquitoes, so there aren’t any bugs.”
No bugs, and no murders. Well, one murder, late last year. But for a community that’s been around for over 10 years, one murder ain’t bad.
Even still, Celebration is much like the Epcot theme park in the sense that it’s a sad, half-hearted compromise to a brilliant man’s forever-unrealized vision.
I’ll leave you with a promotional video from 1966, featuring Walt Disney just two months before he died, hyping up his dream for an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.
What a wonderful trip back to the past — to a man who really did envision a wonderful green future. Long live Walt Disney. And thanks for posting!
The Wonderful World”, EPCOT- Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorow, The modern science and Experience. i think in the future EPCOT Disney Conceft visit in Indonesia,thank you.