I have a lot of thoughts regarding EPCOT and the direction that Disney is taking the park. While I won't spell all of them out right this minute, there are three major aspects of the park's update that bother me most.
1) Disney's lack of regard for sightlines. The new Guardians show building and the Harmonious infrastructure will stain the park's atmosphere for years to come, and it's such a shame. When EPCOT Center opened in 1982, the pavillions that housed attractions were designed to be seen from all angles throughout the park. They were wonderous and beautiful, and as I'm sure most of you know were meant to evoke the feeling of the World's Fairs of old. It's a shame that Disney was more interested in saving money than in continuing the tradition of the original EPCOT Center Imagineers when planning for the park's future.
2) The division of Future World into 3 "neighborhoods." Part of EPCOT's beauty was it's simplicity. While it's true that the original EPCOT Center Imagineers divided Future World by topic (Hard Sciences in FW East, and Soft Sciences in FW West), this division was subtle. It was implied by 1) the topics found on each side of the land and 2) the aesthetics that made up each side of the land. FW East was rigid--planters and walkways were angular and designed in straight lines. The walkways and planters of FW West, on the other hand, were curved and bordered by water features.
The new EPCOT "neighborhoods" feel artificial. While the subtle differences between East and West will remain, nothing is being added or changed to actually differentiate the "new" lands. Imagineering is simply drawing a line on a map and declaring to guests that each neighborhood exists. In other words, there is no reason for the change from FW to World Celebration, Discovery, and Nature other than to do away with the "Future World" name (and the "future" theming it implies) and to claim that the park is "new."
^^Given that fact, a much better solution would have been to rename Future World, "Discovery World." This would maintain the park's simplicity while simultaneously doing away with the expectation that guests will experience "the future" when visiting EPCOT.
3) The demolition of Innoventions West. I am perfectly willing to accept that Epcot was/is in dire need of an aesthetic makeover. I'm even willing to entertain the argument that the Communicore/Innoventions buildings looked dated and that the center of Epcot was in dire need of change. What I don't understand is why Imagineering settled on destroying the symmetry of the park. Demoloshing the entirety of Innoventions West while leaving Innoventions East largely unchanged baffles my mind.
If Imagineering truly believed that the old Communicore buildings served no purpose in the new EPCOT, they they should have either 1) demolished both Communicore West and Communicore East, or 2) kept the Northern sections of the Communicore buildings (closest to Spaceship Earth) and demolished the two Southern portions (formerly Fountainview, Club Cool, and MouseGears--now Creations Shop). By doing away with what I'll dub, "Innoventions South," EPCOT's symmetry and simplicity would have remained.
Discovery
