Epcot
Walking into Disneyworld, the large geodesic sphere known as Epcot is one of the first attractions you see. Epcot, short for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, was developed by Walt Disney near the end of his lifetime before opening on October 1, 1982. It was meant to portray Disney’s idea of a Utopian city of the future.
The initial concept was for a prototypical society, home to approximately 20,000 inhabitants, which was supposed to be a trial base for metropolitan design and composition. It was meant to be circularly shaped, with corporations and viable expanses at its focus, municipal buildings, institutes, and leisure facilities surrounding it, and domiciliary communities alongside the border. Transportation was planned to have been offered by People Movers, or fully automated, grade-separated mass transit systems like those in Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland. Vehicular circulation was going to be contained underground, so pedestrians would be safe to walk around above ground. Unfortunately, Walt Disney was unable to acquire support and acquiescence to begin this effort on his Florida acreage before he arranged to build the Magic Kingdom first.
After Disney’s death in 1966, nearly five years before the opening of Magic Kingdom, The Walt Disney Company refused to play a major part in overseeing such an urbanized area as a city without Disney’s supervision. The exemplary society of Celebration, Florida has been declared as a fulfillment of Disney’s innovative concept, but Celebration is based on impressions of new metropolitan, which is fundamentally dissimilar from Disney’s modernist and futurist visions.
The innovative strategies for the park displayed indecisiveness around the park’s rationale. Some Imagineers desired for it to epitomize the front-line of technology and new developments, whereas others sought for it to platform global values and customs. Eventually, a replica of the high-tech park was placed alongside a replica of a World’s Fair global theme park and they were united. The park was initially called EPCOT Center to mirror the principles and paradigms of the metropolis. It was built for a projected $800 million to $1.4 billion and took three years to construct, named at the time the greatest building task on the planet.
As part of the opening-day celebration, dancers and bands performed the song We’ve Just Begun to Dream as well as a piece The Sherman Brothers wrote exclusively for the occasion titled, “The World Showcase March”. To mark the opening of the cultural park, performance groups embodying nations from across the globe performed and water collected from main rivers around the world was poured from ceremonial containers into the park’s Fountain of Nations. During the big finish, a plethora of doves and balloons were released to the skies.
Since it’s opening, Epcot has remained a huge tourist attraction for many families visiting Disney World year-round. It’s mixture of cultural and futuristic themes lends its visitors a new perspective and promotes the one thing Walt Disney believes in most: imagination.
http://www.thisdayindisneyhistory.com/EpcotGrandOpening.html
The initial concept was for a prototypical society, home to approximately 20,000 inhabitants, which was supposed to be a trial base for metropolitan design and composition. It was meant to be circularly shaped, with corporations and viable expanses at its focus, municipal buildings, institutes, and leisure facilities surrounding it, and domiciliary communities alongside the border. Transportation was planned to have been offered by People Movers, or fully automated, grade-separated mass transit systems like those in Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland. Vehicular circulation was going to be contained underground, so pedestrians would be safe to walk around above ground. Unfortunately, Walt Disney was unable to acquire support and acquiescence to begin this effort on his Florida acreage before he arranged to build the Magic Kingdom first.
After Disney’s death in 1966, nearly five years before the opening of Magic Kingdom, The Walt Disney Company refused to play a major part in overseeing such an urbanized area as a city without Disney’s supervision. The exemplary society of Celebration, Florida has been declared as a fulfillment of Disney’s innovative concept, but Celebration is based on impressions of new metropolitan, which is fundamentally dissimilar from Disney’s modernist and futurist visions.
The innovative strategies for the park displayed indecisiveness around the park’s rationale. Some Imagineers desired for it to epitomize the front-line of technology and new developments, whereas others sought for it to platform global values and customs. Eventually, a replica of the high-tech park was placed alongside a replica of a World’s Fair global theme park and they were united. The park was initially called EPCOT Center to mirror the principles and paradigms of the metropolis. It was built for a projected $800 million to $1.4 billion and took three years to construct, named at the time the greatest building task on the planet.
As part of the opening-day celebration, dancers and bands performed the song We’ve Just Begun to Dream as well as a piece The Sherman Brothers wrote exclusively for the occasion titled, “The World Showcase March”. To mark the opening of the cultural park, performance groups embodying nations from across the globe performed and water collected from main rivers around the world was poured from ceremonial containers into the park’s Fountain of Nations. During the big finish, a plethora of doves and balloons were released to the skies.
Since it’s opening, Epcot has remained a huge tourist attraction for many families visiting Disney World year-round. It’s mixture of cultural and futuristic themes lends its visitors a new perspective and promotes the one thing Walt Disney believes in most: imagination.
http://www.thisdayindisneyhistory.com/EpcotGrandOpening.html