Originally The Florida Project was supposed to be the Magic Kingdom, a few hotels, and a shopping district. The Houses and Offices were meant to be lived in by the thousands of employees needed to run the facilities. Not that I think he was a cheap man, but what I have begun to rethink is that he planned to have employees live in company housing so he wouldn't have to give them annual raises or too many benefits, it would all be controlled by the company. That's just my opinion on the Florida Project.
Actually, that is not correct. The original intention of The Florida Project was EPCOT, the Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow, a sort of think-tank city that brought together the greatest minds and companies in American industry to be efficient and come up with new ideas. It is explored as Walt intended in the 1966 "EPCOT" film, which can be found on the Internet in its entirety, but also is available on the "Tomorrowland" edition of the Walt Disney Treasures DVD. It was the last film that he made before he died, and he was heavily influenced, I think, by his experience with the 1964 New York World's Fair, where he worked with these corporations (like GE and Ford) to showcase their accompllshments. Remember, he believed in the Carousel of Progress. The hotels and suburbs were planned, along with REGULAR city parks (green zones) for the EPCOT project. There was a complete model made and seen in the Carousel for a while, and is now partly seen at DL's railroad.
The Magic Kingdom and tourist hotels were separate, and were largely added to appease the people in Florida, as well as to generate income to get the whole project going. It was something people understood (from Disneyland on TV) and would help pay for the larger EPCOT project. If you watch the EPCOT film, you will not see the Magic Kingdom except as a "vacation area." The main focus of the film, and Walt's intentions, was to make a new type of eutopian place to live that would attract the greatest minds and industries, again I think, flavored by the visions from the World's Fair and the real "urban planning" that Disneyland itself had been.
His death left Roy and the company to fulfill his dream, and they started with the easiest way, and the best way to appease Florida as well as to get some cash going quickly -- by creating the Vacation Kingdom (the MK and hotels) in the far North of the property, leaving the main property for EPCOT, while they figured it out. Ultimately, they decided to make EPCOT Center, a park that took the ideals of EPCOT and of the World's Fair, but had no residents -- moslty because they could not figure out how to incorporate residents without ceding control over time through voting rights, etc. Just too risky.
Still find it odd. I understand his intentions, but still...
I think you will find that his intentions may have been a little out there -- especially utopian -- but for the good. Would be curious to see what would have happened with EPCOT had he lived.
