WEBVTT - TechList: The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:09.600 Hey there, it's Jonathan Strickland, and I'm here to introduce 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:14.560 a playlist of ten episodes of my podcast tech Stuff 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:20.000 that are all about entertainment and entertainment related fields, from 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:25.720 video games to television series, two films to internet videos 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:30.440 from yesteryear. So I hope you guys enjoy these episodes. 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:34.440 You can go to the tech Stuff podcast page and 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:38.000 subscribe to listen to all sorts of episodes about tech 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:42.240 from all realms, and hopefully this will provide a little 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:46.040 bit of entertainment, a little bit of education, and probably 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:49.000 more than a few puns, because that's kind of how 0:00:49.080 --> 0:01:06.240 I roll. Enjoy this playlist. Welcome to tex Stuff, a 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:14.399 production from my Heart Radio. Hey there, and welcome to 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:17.520 tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:19.680 producer with I Heart Radio, and I love all things tech, 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:22.200 and we are going to listen to another special episode 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:25.760 and this entertainment playlist. This is the Experimental Prototype Community 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:30.960 of Tomorrow, also known as EPCOT, which currently is closed. 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.720 But it's an interesting story to hear about the origins 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:39.119 of EPCOT and how it changed from its original concept 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:43.440 to its actual execution. So I hope you guys enjoy 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:47.000 this episode, and uh, let's take a listen. Back on 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:53.200 October one, two Walt Disney World opened its Phase two 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.840 theme park. The original park, the Magic Kingdom, was Phase 0:01:56.880 --> 0:01:59.920 one that had opened on October one, nineteen seventy one, 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.600 and this episode is publishing in October one, two thousand eighteen. 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.919 So I figured I would do an episode specifically about 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:13.600 the concept behind the original Epcot and how that was 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:17.160 different from the theme park that would open thirty six 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:20.880 years from now, Like back back thirty six years ago, 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:24.480 back in time. Well, today's Epcot is presented as a 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:29.680 proper noun, So Epcot is just its name, big E, small, PC, 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:34.440 O T. But originally the name was actually an acronym. 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:37.919 Now there's a joke about what that acronym stands for. 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:42.080 The joke says that stands for every person comes out 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:46.760 tired because Epcot is an enormous theme park. It's twice 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:49.240 the size of the Magic Kingdom, three times the size 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:53.280 of Disneyland, and there's very little shade in the Florida 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:56.639 whether can be a bit unforgiving for much of the year, 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:59.600 for example, when I was there. But in fact, the 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:05.680 acron him really stood for experimental prototype community of tomorrow, 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:10.120 and it was one of Walt Disney's dream projects, a 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:14.880 truly ambitious goal that he had set now before nineteen 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:19.800 Epcot was a name only a relatively few number of 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:25.240 people had ever heard, uh it had not escaped the 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:29.400 company and a few small or a few partners potential partners. 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:32.760 So Walt Disney had been interested in creating a prototype 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:38.560 city that incorporated cutting edge technology. It would have sophisticated 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:42.440 urban planning from the get go, and this was an 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.760 idea he came up with not long after Disneyland was 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:50.240 established in the fifties. He had previously explored the possibility 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:54.320 of creating such a city. In nineteen fifty nine, he 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:59.440 got an opportunity with some developers outside of Palm Beach, 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:02.400 Florida up He had previously looked at New York as 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:06.760 a site, but determined that that was not a very 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:10.960 good site for an amusement park, largely because of whether 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.960 it would probably mean that the theme park would only 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:17.160 really be an operation for part of the year, and 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:20.200 he wand year long operations because it was the most 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:23.720 efficient use of the space. So he had looked around 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:26.120 the Eastern Seaboard. He looked at Palm Beach, Florida. It 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:29.840 would have been a joint effort between Disney's company, uh 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:34.400 NBC r c A and a billionaire named John D. MacArthur. 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:37.200 But the plan fell through. Our c A went through 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:39.800 some financial difficulties and kind of had to withdraw from it, 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:43.479 and there were disagreements between Roy Disney, who was sort 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:47.320 of the financial genius behind the Disney Company, and MacArthur, 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:51.320 so they didn't go any further than that. But Walt 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:54.359 Disney had really started to think about this idea of 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:57.359 creating a city, and he was resolved to give it 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:00.920 a shot if he had the chance. The first time 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:04.520 the public got to hear at least a hint about 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:08.240 Disney's dream of this community of tomorrow would be back 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:11.960 in November nineteen sixty five at a press conference. This 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:15.599 was a press conference where the company, the Disney Company, 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:19.800 revealed that had purchased nearly twenty eight thousand acres of 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:24.279 land in central Florida. Now, at that press conference, Walt 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:28.719 Disney announced that they had in mind something much more 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.359 than an entertainment offering like Disneyland. Now that's not to 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:37.039 disparage Disneyland. I truly love that theme park, but rather 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:40.400 to say that Walt Disney had a larger vision for 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:45.440 the Orlando deal. Initially, though he was rather coy with 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:49.039 sharing those ideas. They the details for what they were 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.680 planning were pretty sparse at that press conference, which, by 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:54.560 the way, you can watch that press conference is on YouTube. 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:59.039 You can pull up the November nineteen announcement of what 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:01.599 would become Walt Disney World. At this point it was 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:06.640 the Florida Project. Walt Disney didn't want to commit publicly 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:10.040 to any one plan that early in the process. He 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:12.359 did say that he had many ideas and he wanted 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:15.520 the project to at least be the equal of Disneyland, 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:20.960 if not superior to Disneyland. But following the conference, there 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:23.520 were news reports that said the site would become the 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:27.719 home of a city of yesterday, so presumably meaning a 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:31.520 community that harkened back to an idealistic vision of Americana, 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:35.200 kind of like the embodiment of Main Street USA at 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:39.039 the various Disney parks, and it would also be the 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:42.400 home of a city of tomorrow, and that it would 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:45.600 be at least three years before anything of consequence could 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:48.800 be built on the site of Florida because there'll be 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:50.919 a lot of preliminary work that would need to be 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:56.440 done before any foundation could be laid. Walt Disney died 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:01.280 on December fift nineteen sixty six, due to cancer. Just 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:04.720 a couple of months after his death, the Walt Disney 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.520 Company sent out press kits to the media, including The 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:10.440 New York Times, and those press kits included plans for 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:13.880 what was to become of all that land in Florida. 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:18.200 And at the heart of this plan was this new 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:21.440 type of city. It was a say that was designed 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:24.280 to take advantage of modern technologies from the ground up, 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:27.760 a city purposefully laid out and integrated so that the 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:30.400 people who lived and worked there could spend less time 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:33.760 dealing with day to day frustrations and more time being 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:38.040 productive and doing what most you know, Americans think of 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:42.080 as being the truly American activity, pursuing the heck out 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:46.320 of happiness. So in this press kett where concept images 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:49.880 of elements of this city. One of those concept images 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:53.440 showed a collection of buildings laid out around in a 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:56.680 hub and wheel pattern of what the company referred to 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:00.240 as the radial design that would be common to all 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:03.800 elements of this new city. You would see this same 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:09.000 sort of basic element of design repeated throughout the various incarnations. 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:15.240 Each building in this particular drawing for this industrial park 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:18.280 part of the city was shaped kind of like a 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:21.440 slice of high but you cut the pointy bit off, 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:24.679 so you've got a flat part towards this pointing towards 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:28.040 the center, the center being a circular sort of courtyard, 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:32.080 and each building is like a slightly separated piece of pie. 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:36.880 This industrial complex was supposed to be a place where 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:41.480 corporations would partner with Disney. They would have their locations 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:44.840 here to create a kind of a showcase of industry 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:48.240 at work. According to the breast kit, so it's supposed 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:52.719 to be kind of a a stage almost where American 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:57.840 industry could be shown off, not just for promotional purposes, 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:01.480 but also a way to interact with the public and 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:05.360 show off the newest of innovations. Uh Walt Disney was 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:09.560 a great believer in American ingenuity and innovation, and he 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:14.319 wanted this to be kind of a stage for those companies. 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:18.440 Another image included a cutaway concept of what the company 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:22.240 referred to as the Transportation Lobby. This would actually be 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:28.640 located beneath an enormous hotel, a thirty story hotel, so 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:31.240 you have a thirty story hotel. And then where you 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.200 would have the ground level, like where pedestrians will be 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:38.440 walking around outside, you had the transportation lobby. In this image, 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:41.240 you can see people walking around on that ground floor, 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:45.720 and that's the that's the domain of pedestrians. Beneath the 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:51.760 transportation lobby, you would see parking facilities and highways. The 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:57.040 road was actually beneath this prototype community of Tomorrow. It 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.839 didn't run through it, it ran under it. Not that 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.680 different from what Elon Musk has proposed with some of 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:05.200 his tunnel systems that he would like to build under 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:08.720 various cities. So you could argue that Elon Musk is 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:11.199 trying to bring to life at least part of this 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:16.240 vision of the community of Tomorrow. And these highways would 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:21.000 also include specific sections meant for specific types of vehicles. 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:25.679 At the bottommost layer would be the the level for 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:31.000 supply trucks, so trucks carrying important supplies for the community 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:34.440 would actually travel on the lowest level and they would 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.680 have direct access to things like freight elevators, and then 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:42.040 commuter traffic would be a level above that. But still 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:45.240 below ground, and then you would have the ground floor 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.920 where people could walk around. Above that would be elevated tracks, 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:54.199 and you would have a system that was essentially the 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:57.480 wed Way people Mover. Anyone who's been to Disneyland or 0:10:57.480 --> 0:11:00.760 Walt Disney World is probably somewhat familiar of the people Mover, 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:07.320 and that would be sort of a short distance, slow 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:12.240 public transit offering, not not a fast travel. But then 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:15.120 across from that is an elevated monorail, and that was 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:19.120 meant to be for longer distances and faster travel. So, 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:21.840 according to the press kit, the Transportation Lobby will be 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:25.600 located at the very heart of Epcot, directly beneath the 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:29.400 thirty story theme hotel. This will be the central arrival 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:32.840 departure point for all passengers using the monorail or the 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:36.920 newly designed wed Way people Mover. Another drawing showed a 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:41.240 large indoor shopping district that was meant to hold imported merchandise, 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:45.960 foreign cuisine, dinner shows, and roving entertainers native to many lands. 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:49.040 So you start to hear a little elements that you 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:52.280 might recognize if you've been to the Upcot theme park, 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.480 but these were meant on a much grander scale. This 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:57.000 press kit, by the way, it was just a taste 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:01.120 of the concept. Walt Disney, back in nineteen sixty six, 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:03.400 just a couple of months before he passed away, had 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:07.120 actually shot a twenty four minute film about this concept. 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:11.000 The film would premiere in February ninety seven, so two 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:15.200 months after Disney had passed away. In that film, Disney 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:18.880 would mention that the details of what was going on 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:22.880 in Florida would be this experimental prototype community of tomorrow, 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:25.120 or at least a large part of it would be. 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:31.120 The underlying philosophy would be pretty rock solid, But Disney 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:33.880 did say that the drawings he was going to reveal 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:37.680 were concepts that could easily undergo a great deal of 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:41.680 change before they were ever made real. So his plan 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:45.199 was to build this community, but he wasn't entirely certain 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:48.520 that it was going to look exactly the way his 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:52.160 artists had designed it from the get go. He mentioned 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:56.000 that the Florida project, now called Disney World, would include 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:59.359 a theme park that would be similar to Disneyland in California, 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.920 but that would be one small component of the new project, 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:06.560 because again, the land in Florida was enormous. You would 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:11.880 also have hotels, motels, recreational facilities, and much more. For example, 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.880 the plans also included an airport of the future at 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:19.280 the southern end of the property, opposite where the theme 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:21.240 park was to be located. So the theme park was 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:24.080 to be at the north end, and this airport would 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:26.280 have been at the southern end. The airport would then 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:30.880 feed into what was labeled as an entrance complex was 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:33.200 a little bit further to the north, and that would 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:35.920 be the entry point for visitors to Disney World. They 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:38.400 would go through this kind of like main gates in 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:43.119 a way. But this itself was a pretty large complex. 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:46.280 In fact, on the map, the complex looks like it's 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:50.319 larger than what was the planned one thousand acre industrial 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:53.240 park I mentioned earlier that was actually next in line 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:57.880 to the north so airport. Then you get the entrance complex, 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:01.880 then you get the industrial park next to the north. 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:05.920 Beyond that was Epcot itself, the full city prototype design, 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:07.880 and then at the very tippy top on the north 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:10.520 end was the theme park in hotels. Connecting all of 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:13.400 those elements was the mono rail system. And to call 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:17.440 it ambitious would be a massive understatement. And Epcot was, 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:20.080 as Walt Disney himself put it in that nineteen sixty 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:23.960 six film that debuted in sixty seven, the heart of 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:27.560 the operation, it was what he was most excited about. 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:32.520 That's what the Florida project was really focused on. Was EPCOT. Now, 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:35.640 according to Disney, the city wouldn't just be a showcase 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:38.640 for the cutting edge technologies of the late nineteen sixties. 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:42.280 It would be a community that would evolve continuously as 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:46.200 technology advanced. It would never be complete, it would never 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:49.360 be finished. It would be a community that embraced change 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:54.000 and advances. So what was Disney proposing beyond these concept 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:57.720 drawings and these broad ideas. What was the driving force 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:00.440 behind his vision. I'll explain that in just a moment, 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:03.440 but first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:14.000 In that nineteen sixty six film, Walt Disney said that 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:17.240 the primary factor that would drive the design principles for 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:20.960 EPCOT would be public need. That designing the city with 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:24.040 the public need and mind from the get go would 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.080 create the best chance of building a community that met 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:30.520 those needs from the start. So ideally, you would take 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:34.640 all the knowledge accumulated through decades of urban planning and 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:36.960 use it to lay out a city in a logical 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:40.280 intuitive way, so that the city is adapted to the 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:43.200 people living in it, rather than the citizens having to 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:47.320 adapt to the city. So how was it laid out? Well, 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:50.280 it goes back to that radial design. Imagine a wheel 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:52.400 like a bicycle wheel and has a hub in the 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:55.560 middle and their spokes from the hub leading out to 0:15:55.640 --> 0:16:00.600 the outer edge. That's the basic design of the original Epcot. 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:04.360 Disney was attracted to this particular design for a few reasons. 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.640 For one, it was really efficient. Having controlled points of 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:11.200 entry and a radial design allowed for efficient circulation of traffic. 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.280 And for another, it also made it easy to navigate. 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:17.800 Orienting yourself in such a layout was relatively easy. You 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:21.960 had an identifiable central point and predictable layouts surrounding it, 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:24.560 so even if you got a little turned around, it 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:26.360 would be pretty easy to find your way back to 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:29.480 a familiar point and then figure out where you were 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:33.600 from there. So at the center, the hub part, the 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:36.760 middle of the circle would be the sort of the 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:40.280 downtown section of this community would be a sort of 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:44.920 a business complex. It's where you'd find office buildings, corporate jobs, 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:47.480 things like that. It's also where you would find major 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:53.360 cultural centers, museums, theaters, entertainment complexes, restaurants would be in 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:56.640 this section, nightlife locations, clubs, that kind of thing would 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:59.520 be there. It would incorporate all the elements we associate 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.880 with a ibrant downtown area of a major city. At 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:06.600 the very center of the sub would be that hotel 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:10.840 I mentioned, the thirty story tall hotel, and that hotel 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:15.600 would also have a deck measuring seven acres in size, 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:19.360 and that seven acre deck would also have recreational areas including, 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:24.159 according to the concept drawings, ponds, there be parks. The 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:26.879 deck would be several stories above the pedestrian level of 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:29.399 the city center, so you'd have to go into the 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:32.080 hotel and go up to the right floor to get 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:35.920 out on that deck. And incredibly, the entire section, this 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:40.239 whole downtown part of epp Cut was supposed to be 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:45.679 enclosed in a climate controlled dome. There's the center of 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:48.720 Epcut was a city in a bubble, which, if you've 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:52.399 experienced Florida heat and humidity, was likely a big selling 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:55.600 point to a lot of the people who were thinking 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:59.280 about this design because being able to stroll around a 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:03.560 shopping plaza or walk to work or just wandering downtown 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:06.439 without being subjected to the swamping mess that is a 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:10.560 Florida summer was a truly futuristic idea. Now, on the 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:13.080 ground level of the city, the only way to really 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:15.840 get around would be by foot. You might be able 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:20.119 to use something like an electric UH scooter or a 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:24.760 bicycle as well, although that was more intended for further 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:28.320 out from the center, but we'll get to that. So 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:32.240 you'd really be the pedestrian UH wandering around here because 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:35.600 all the car traffic would be below you. It would 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:39.280 be underground, and all the public transit would be above 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:42.320 you on elevated rails, either the people mover on its 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:45.840 own elevated track or the monorail on its elevated track, 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:50.600 And those last two the people move around the monorail 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:54.119 would also be electric powered vehicles, so at least in theory, 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:58.280 they would operate quietly and they would not generate pollution, 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:01.520 although I got to back that up a little bit 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:04.880 because you have to generate the electricity that runs the system. 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:08.280 So depending upon how you generated the electricity, you can 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:10.520 still be generating a lot of pollution. It's just to 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:12.840 be in a different part of the chain, right, a 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:15.080 different part of the ecosystem. It would be in the 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:19.719 electricity generation part, but not the direct operation of the vehicle. 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:22.080 But you still have to look at the big picture. 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:24.680 You can't just look at tiny sections and just say 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:27.719 this is automatically better. But it was an interesting idea. 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:30.520 The monorail would have a station under the hotel at 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:34.200 the transportation center, as I mentioned, so it would still 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:37.159 be located on kind of the ground floor of the 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:40.919 city itself. Right, the transportation center would be on the 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:44.959 pedestrian level of this city, and the hotel would be 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:47.720 essentially like the lobby of the hotel as I would imagine, 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:51.240 it would be floor too. Now on the outskirts of 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:54.560 this sector, the center, the hub of the city would 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:58.880 be high density apartment housing. So this would be for uh, 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:02.679 folks who are working right there in downtown. Might be 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:05.919 for single people who are working within that city. It 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:08.720 could be people who are working in the theme park 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:12.359 and who aren't you know, they don't they don't have 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:15.200 their own families, but they need a place to live. 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:17.960 But this would give them very quick access to that 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:20.200 theme park because again the theme park would be connected 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:24.479 by monorail to the north. So uh, this was not 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:28.080 the main part of housing. It was just one element 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:33.679 of it. The only a small percentage of Epcot's population 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:38.080 would be living in these high density apartments, according to 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:42.399 the promotional film. Now the next section out from the center, 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:45.840 so you've got downtown, you know, the high density apartments. 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:51.440 Immediately surrounding downtown. Around that was a green belt of parks. 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:54.199 So the next layer out, if you're thinking of it 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:58.320 like a target, the next ring outside of the bull's 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:01.639 eye was the screen elt. So you had parks, you 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:06.360 had golf courses, sporting fields, you know, football fields, baseball diamonds, 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:09.160 that kind of stuff. And this would be the section 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:11.520 of Epcot that would serve as the location also for 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:14.399 things like schools and churches, and it would be the 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:16.879 play space for the city where people could come and 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:20.040 spend time outside. So this is no longer in the bubble. 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:23.680 This is outside the bubble. And then outside of that 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:27.639 would be the low density housing, the suburbs of Epcot. 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:32.000 These would be for homes with uh for families, and 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:34.800 it would actually hold the majority of Epcot's residents. Most 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:37.720 people would be living out in these suburbs. Each residential 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:41.480 area would surround the end of one of those spokes 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:44.520 I talked about. So if you again imagine a bicycle 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:46.840 that has spokes leading out from the center wheel, or 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:49.000 maybe maybe we should say a wagon wheel because there 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:54.800 has fewer spokes. Uh, each spoke would be surrounded by 0:21:55.440 --> 0:22:00.200 green space. Uh. The spoke itself would represent the act 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:02.920 for the people mover, So the people mover track would 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:09.600 go uh out and back from the hub along these spokes. 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:15.080 Surrounding that track would be this big green space kind 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:20.919 of like again more parks, golf courses, recreational facilities. And 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:25.440 on the outer edge of this would actually be the houses. 0:22:25.960 --> 0:22:28.800 And then on the back side of the houses would 0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:32.800 be a road where people could drive their cars before 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:36.320 going underneath to get to the downtown area if they 0:22:36.840 --> 0:22:39.440 needed to drive their cars. Although Disney's plan was that 0:22:39.560 --> 0:22:42.520 for day to day use, you would not even use 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:45.240 your car. You would use the people mover transit system 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:48.240 to get in and out of Epcot. You would only 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:50.600 use your car if you needed to go further or 0:22:50.640 --> 0:22:52.359 you know, you just want to go take the family 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:55.920 for a drive. People would either work in the business 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:58.760 center or in the industrial complexes that were south of 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:01.000 the community, or in the theme parks that were north 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:04.800 of the community. In the concept, every citizen of Epcot 0:23:04.920 --> 0:23:07.639 would be guaranteed a job, and the community would be 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:11.439 home to around twenty thousand people. The community would be 0:23:11.480 --> 0:23:15.040 a model for a city unit, and future cities might 0:23:15.119 --> 0:23:19.320 consist of several communities designed in this way, all linked 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:25.560 together by monorail lines. And this was an enormously ambitious idea. 0:23:25.760 --> 0:23:29.320 Walt Disney himself admitted that the challenge was far too 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:32.120 big for any one company to take on by itself. 0:23:32.160 --> 0:23:35.680 Epcot would have to be a joint effort between many 0:23:35.760 --> 0:23:38.560 different companies to become a reality. These would have to 0:23:38.560 --> 0:23:41.000 be companies that wanted to have a spot in that 0:23:41.359 --> 0:23:45.119 industrial complex, for example, where they could experiment with different 0:23:45.119 --> 0:23:49.360 approaches to prototyping and pioneering news systems and practices. The 0:23:49.359 --> 0:23:51.800 theme park would help bring in money to help support 0:23:51.840 --> 0:23:54.879 the infrastructure and would provide employment to many of the 0:23:54.920 --> 0:23:58.240 residents of Epcot. And leading up to this, Disney and 0:23:58.280 --> 0:24:01.439 his team had learned a lot. They learned lessons from 0:24:01.440 --> 0:24:04.720 building out the company's movie studio buildings in Burbank, California. 0:24:05.160 --> 0:24:10.480 They learned even more during the construction and launch of Disneyland. Disneyland, 0:24:10.920 --> 0:24:14.280 you may know also employs the hub and spoke design, 0:24:14.359 --> 0:24:16.919 that radial design. You've got the castle in the center 0:24:17.400 --> 0:24:21.200 and the different lands like fantasy Land, tomorrow Land, frontier Land, 0:24:21.240 --> 0:24:26.199 adventure Land on the outskirts. It follows that same idea 0:24:26.280 --> 0:24:29.600 and it has that identifiable center with the castle that 0:24:29.920 --> 0:24:32.480 lets you figure out where you are in relation to 0:24:32.480 --> 0:24:37.119 everything else pretty quickly. Uh. Walt Disney learned he wanted 0:24:37.280 --> 0:24:41.880 more control over the environment after he built Disneyland, because 0:24:42.520 --> 0:24:46.120 when he built Disneyland, what followed were all these hotels 0:24:46.119 --> 0:24:50.280 and motels popping up around from other, you know, business owners, 0:24:50.880 --> 0:24:54.280 and it became kind of a tourist trappee area around Disneyland, 0:24:54.359 --> 0:24:56.200 and Walt Disney didn't like that at all. He felt 0:24:56.200 --> 0:25:01.040 it marred the appearance of disney Lands. So with Florida, 0:25:01.520 --> 0:25:04.240 he wanted to exert a lot more control over the 0:25:04.359 --> 0:25:07.920 environment so that people would experience it the way he 0:25:08.000 --> 0:25:11.760