Looks like the kind of place where it would be fun to bounce a tennis ball across the room with a friend (you know, the reason we all go to Epcot!). I wonder if anyone would notice, on their phones or asleep.View attachment 795366
Got to see this monstrosity in person…there were people sleeping, facetiming others…just like Walt wanted!
I was thinking of getting the annual passholders together and starting some sort of scrabble club. Ya know, to liven up the place!
Carpeted walls are such a part of WDW's and specifically EPCOT's DNA. Would love to know the history and rationale behind the design choice. There's just such a sense of comfort in the spaces where it's used, like a warm blanket but on a much grander scale.
Agree. The destruction really is a sucker punch, not only because of what was lost but also because of the absolute inferiority of what they replaced it with.
But we know why. They destroyed it in 2019 to make way for the multi-storey festival pavilion. When plans changed post pandemic, CommuniCore Hall became a backup plan to fill the now empty plot of land, with a smaller budget (announced 2022). Whilst CommuniCore Hall is very plain, you can see how we got to this stage
Very true.
It was just a thing that they sometimes did in the 70s and 80s. It's not some idea they came up with exclusively for EPCOT. It's just never been updated. As for the rationale, not sure. Maybe sound dampening?
Sound dampening sounds about right. I always liked the aesthetic. Maybe it's a product of my age and the era I grew up in but I think it makes for a more welcoming environment than the hard surfaces and sterile modern look. Did Dreamflight/If You Had Wings also use carpeted walls in the queue? Comparing it to the beat up look the painted walls in the Buzz queue have now, it seems as if durability may have also been a rationale. Agree it's definitely a product of a certain era.
wow! Thank's for pointing that out. Didn't they clean the beams at Epcot I remember over by imagination pavilion if the front looks like that then they want you to have a very realistic capture. BTW this area you can take the real picture from the area right there! Unless you want no people.. 
This is a fascinating observation. I almost wonder if they "painted" it with AI and AI said to itself "well, it's always dirty in the all the photos, so I guess I'm supposed to make it dirty."
Or maybe it’s just a photo that’s been collaged and edited.
Chill
Not for most people in the park.
What do you think the Festival Center would have been like most of the time? And having to haul everything up through elevators would have limited the extent of work, especially over time. But again, for most people it just would have been the concrete plaza below.