When we last left, Walt had completed the
purchase of the land in Florida, and was ready to begin planning the development.
What to build?
“I’ve always said that there will never be another Disneyland,
and I think it’s going to work out that way. But it will be the equivalent
of Disneyland. We know the basic things that have family appeal. There
are many ways that you can use those certain basic things and give them
a new décor, a new treatment. This concept here will have to
be something that is unique, so there is a distinction between Disneyland
in California and whatever Disney does in Florida.”
Walt wanted to build another Magic Kingdom, to take advantage of all
that he had learned since he built Disneyland, but he gradually came to
focus on a more important project on his mind: The Experimental Prototype
Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT.
At the press conference to announce the Florida Project on November 15,
1965, Walt was quoted as saying:
“I would like to be part of building a model community, a City
of Tomorrow, you might say, because I don’t believe in going out to
this extreme blue-sky stuff that some architects do. I believe that
people still want to live like human beings. There’s a lot of things
that could be done. I’m not against the automobile, but I just feel
that the automobile has moved into communities too much. I feel that
you can design so that the automobile is there, but still put people
back as pedestrians again, you see. I’d love to work on a project like
that.
“Also, I mean, in the way of schools, facilities for the community,
community entertainments and life. I’d love to be part of building up
a school of tomorrow… This might become a pilot operation for the
teaching age—to go out across the country and across the world.
The great problem today is the one of teaching.”
As Walt focused more and more on EPCOT, he began to think of Florida’s
Magic Kingdom as a “wienie,” or highly visible attraction to
draw people in, for the EPCOT project. It would both draw people to Disneyworld
and bring in funding for the project.
Urban planning
Walt spent almost all of his time working on the EPCOT idea. He read
books about urban planning. He toured research laboratories and think
tanks at many major corporations. He wanted to come up with new designs
that would allow the city to function more efficiently than other cities,
and yet still allow the residents to have a warmer, more close-knit community.
There was a three-man planning committee for the Florida Project. Walt
had Marvin Davis, an architect who had drawn up the 1953 plan for Disneyland
(and who had married Walt’s niece Marjorie), and General Joe Potter, whom
Walt had met during the construction of the New York World’s Fair, working
on the project with him. There was a special planning room set up for
the EPCOT project, and only the three of them had keys. Walt’s health
began to fail as work continued. His smoking had caused lung cancer, and
a number of other illnesses and injuries had taken their toll. Walt expanded
the project team as work progressed, and the Disneyworld conference room
became the largest room at WED.
In July of 1966, Walt rented a yacht for a cruise in British Columbia
for his entire family to celebrate his and Lillian’s 41st anniversary.
He, Lilly, their two daughters and sons-in-law, and their seven grandchildren
took the Disney plane to Vancouver and then lived on the boat for two
weeks. It would be Walt’s last vacation. While on the trip, he read books
on city planning to relax. Even on vacation, Walt was driven to work on
his dream city.
“The EPCOT Film,” or Walt’s Last Film
Walt decided to make a 20-minute film about Disneyworld to help potential
investors and the general public get a better idea of what he was trying
to do. In the film, he said,
“But the most exciting and by far the most important part of our
Florida project… in fact, the heart of everything we’ll be doing
in Disney World… will be our Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow.
We call it EPCOT. EPCOT will be an experimental prototype community
of tomorrow that 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. I don’t believe there’s
a challenge anywhere in the world that’s more important to people everywhere
than finding solutions to the problems of our cities. But where do we
begin… how do we start answering this great challenge? Well, we’re
convinced we must start with the public need. And the need is for starting
from scratch on virgin land and building a special kind of new community.
So that’s what EPCOT is… an experimental prototype community that
will always be in a state of becoming. It will never cease to be a living
blueprint of the future, where people actually live a life they can’t
find anywhere else in the world.
“Everything in EPCOT will be dedicated to the happiness of the
people who will live, work, and play here… and to those who come
here from all around the world to visit our living showcase. We don’t
presume to know all the answers. In fact, we’re counting on the cooperation
of American industry to provide their best thinking during the planning
and creation of our Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. And
most important of all, when EPCOT has become a reality and we find the
need for technologies that don’t even exist today, it’s our hope that
EPCOT will stimulate American industry to develop new solutions that
will meet the needs of people expressed right here in the experimental
community.”
Walt would frequently arrive at project meetings with notes that he had
made overnight. One morning in early October 1966, he arrived with a sketch
of the Florida property that was to become known as the Seventh Preliminary
Master Plot Plan. It had an outline of the property, and notations for
the locations of parks, hotels, lakes, tourist trailer camps, motels,
an airport, a main entrance, and an industrial entrance. It also stated
that the truck route would always be under the monorail. This plan remained
the basic pattern for the property’s development.
Planning the City of Tomorrow
Walt knew that he needed some kind of governmental structure to provide
services to the area. Water and sewer districts, fire departments, police
departments, zoning boards, and so on, would need to be established to
serve the property. A proposal for a special assessment district, to be
called the Reedy Creek Improvement District, was prepared for the Florida
state legislature in late 1966. It included creation of the municipalities
of Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake. Largely based on the premise of being
needed for the infrastructure of Walt’s city, it passed the legislature
in May of 1967.
In an October 1966 interview, Walt said”
“It’s like the city of tomorrow ought to be, a city that caters
to the people as a service function. 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 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. One of our requirements is that the people who live
in EPCOT must help keep it alive.”
He also mentioned (a little-known fact) that he was forming a plan for
another prototype city in his mind, which would be a laboratory for administering
cities. Everyone, including retirees, would be able to buy property in
this second city.
Walt kept fleshing out his dream of EPCOT. But he would never live to
see it built. And it never would be built as he had planned. Walt Disney
died on December 15, 1966, of acute circulatory collapse. The great showman
was gone, and nobody at WED or Walt Disney Productions was sure what was
going to happen to all the plans that he had made.
