October 1, 1982, EPCOT Center opened. Walt Disney originally conceived of Epcot to be a utopian City. The name was the acronym, Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.
Matty Merritt, a business writer for Morning Brew, shared a brief history of Epcot in an article dated, October 1, 2021. In it he shares the following:
“Walt Disney was often frustrated with modern city living. He reportedly grumbled about being woken up by garbage collectors in the morning, and rolled his eyes at the general dirtiness of Los Angeles.
So, being the guy with the golden ideas (Snow White with seven dwarfs? Brilliant), Walt Disney conceived of a master-planned city that would exist as one pillar of the Disney World complex in Florida. As he explained in a 1966 presentation made for Florida legislators, this city would be a ‘planned environment demonstrating to the world what American communities can accomplish through proper control of planning and design.’”
https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/2021/10/01/a-brief-history-of-the-epcot-center-and-what-it-was-meant-to-be
Regrettably, Walt Disney died in 1966 as the result of complications from lung cancer. The world lost a visionary and with him, his vision for a New City. It is reported that he was collaborating with the MacArthur Foundation to build his city in Palm Beach County.
Another great article to reference is Matt Patches, May 20, 2015, article entitled “Inside Walt Disney’s Ambitious, Failed Plan to Build the City of Tomorrow.”
Before stumbling upon Matty Merritt’s article, I was ignorant of the genesis of Epcot. At its origin, the city starts from a circle. Previous posts of Paris and Washington DC explain the magic of the circular form.
I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole here. I expect future posts will delve more deeply into the thoughts behind Walt Disney’s vision.