Can a New New Orleans rise from the flooded streets as a modern Venice, salvaging what remains as the core and soul of a new city? Is there some angel out there with money, power, and the right contracts — or some fantastic team of Bill Gates, Tom Hanks, Martha Stewart, Dreamworks/Industrial Light & Magic, Xeni Jardin, Jimmy Carter and Oprah — who might take the challenge posed 40 years ago by Walt Disney and focus on some idealistic empire-building in our own backyard, rather than halfway across the globe? This could be a true test of the power and value of democracy.
According to Waltopia, Project X was Walt Disney’s final, never-completed project, proposed to legislative, civic and industrial leaders nearly two months after his death via film presentation. The project included a theme park similar to Disneyland, which later took shape as Disney World. Disney gave special emphasis, however, to his extensive plans for “EPCOT,” the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Worlds away from the EPCOT theme park of today and the frozen-in-time planned community now in existence called Celebration, the EPCOT of Disney’s imagination was a balanced working community that would establish new standards of design, never borrowing from patented modes of living. A new city order.Designed to serve an initial population of 20,000, EPCOT was to be “a living showcase for the creativity of American industry.” Disney challenged industry leaders to the endless task of depicting urban life 25 years into the future, explaining that EPCOT would never be completed but rather would always introduce, test and demonstrate new ideas and new technologies.”Our Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow will always be in a state of becoming,” said Disney in the film. “It will never cease to be a blueprint of the future, where people actually live a life they can’t find anywhere else today.”"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,” continued Disney. “But where we begin? Well, we’re convinced that we must start with the public need. And the need is not just for curing the old ills of old cities. We think the need is for starting from scratch on virgin land like this, and building a community that will be a prototype of the future.
ORLANDO, Fla., Feb.. 2, 1967 (AP) Walt Disney Productions today announced it would build the world’s first glass-domed city in central Florida amid Disneyworld, a $100-million entertainment center……The glass-domed city would take a quarter of a century to construct, Mr. [Roy] Disney said.The presentation, narrated by Walt Disney, who died Dec. 15, was termed by Disney officials as “Walt’s last film.” It showed a 50-acre, air conditioned “city of tomorrow” centered in a 1,000-acre industrial park between Orlando and Kissimmee….Mr. Disney said the futuristic city would be laid out like a wheel, the hub containing a 30-story hotel and convention center, with stores, theaters, restaurants, nightclubs and office buildings.He said it would have a completely closed environment with a minimum of traffic. “The pedestrian will be the king,” he said.He said high-speed monorails would transport workers to the hub of the city from three out-lying areas.Outside the central hub, will lie areas of high-density apartments, green-belt residential districts and low-density living areas. Once inside the city, workers will move on electric conveyor-type cabs or “people-movers,” as Mr. Disney phrased it.~ Excerpted from a Feb. 3 1967 New York Times article: Disneyworld Amusement Center with Domed City Set for Florida
John reminded me of Japan’s maritime airports and the Miyazaki Ocean Dome, existing engineering marvels that Walt might have appreciated, or more likely — implemented.
