News Big changes coming to EPCOT's Future World?

[montyz81]

The ceiling circle lights/sunlights are even the same. What a massive mess Disney has created with Epcot!

 

[CastAStone]

From former Imagineer Jim Shull. Ouch.

I think it looks like the high end retail built into the side of a stadium. Or at Disney Springs,

 

[J4546]

too bad we didnt get this
View attachment 704054

I like what we got but that building would have looked really cool. I like the new dual stage area and dedicated character meet n greets the new revised space is getting a lot though, and new art looks good imo. Overall im very pleased with the new epcot design just not so pleased at how long its taking. But it's almost over....maybe

 

[Casper Gutman]

I’m not an architectural historian, but that exterior, with the grey triangles, looks painfully archaic - 70s, perhaps?

This whole thing is such an incredible failure. I think, watching in slow motion, we’ve lost a sense of it’s awful scope. Honestly, I’d argue the EPCOT redo is a more embarrassing disaster then the original California Adventure, and is surpassed only by Studios Paris and the long fall of classic EPCOT in the late 90s.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I have to disagree here. Or at least argue that it appears to be no more or less a shopping center than what was there originally.

The problem isn't what will be, aside from the spatial confusion generated by Journey of Water sitting within the monorail ring. The problem is that it's not terribly different from what was. This entire project represents a massive waste of time and money at the expense of the guest experience for very little payoff other than "a bit prettier, greener, and up-to-date", which could have been easily achieved with the existing infrastructure.

Yeah, let's remember to shame the imagineers of the past for building an suberbly bland office park as well as the current generation that's building a bland shopping center.

I don't think original EPCOT would have survived the Twitterverse if it existed back then.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I’m not an architectural historian, but that exterior, with the grey triangles, looks painfully archaic - 70s, perhaps?

I would think they're mirroring SSE.

 

[UNCgolf]

I’m not an architectural historian, but that exterior, with the grey triangles, looks painfully archaic - 70s, perhaps?

This whole thing is such an incredible failure. I think, watching in slow motion, we’ve lost a sense of it’s awful scope. Honestly, I’d argue the EPCOT redo is a more embarrassing disaster then the original California Adventure, and is surpassed only by Studios Paris and the long fall of classic EPCOT in the late 90s.

I think they're trying to make it look like Spaceship Earth? At least that's what I get from the triangles.

If that's the goal, though, it's not a good idea. For one, the other buildings don't look like that so it's just kind of randomly there by itself. It would need to be a consistent aesthetic across all the former Communicore buildings.

 

[UNCgolf]

Yeah, let's remember to shame the imagineers of the past for building an suberbly bland office park as well as the current generation that's building a bland shopping center.

I don't think original EPCOT would have survived the Twitterverse if it existed back then.

The original EPCOT was beautiful!

And maybe it's just because of how much I loved that EPCOT, but whenever I have to visit one of those 80s office parks with trees and water features for work I always think it looks so much nicer/more pleasant to work in than the ultra modern skyscraper I'm in in the middle of the city. Certainly a less efficient use of space, though.

 

[CastAStone]

I’m not an architectural historian, but that exterior, with the grey triangles, looks painfully archaic - 70s, perhaps?

I think it’s a mirror.

 

[Casper Gutman]

I would think they're mirroring SSE.

I know what they’re trying to do. At least in this image it absolutely doesn’t work.

 

[Disstevefan1]

This whole thing is such an incredible failure.

I have to agree.
It's ironic we have to live through many years of walls for what is indeed an incredible failure.

 

[comics101]

Spend millions to knock down a building. Build another similar building on the same plot. Stick something else that doesn’t belong in it, that you can do elsewhere, and that you could already do.

You couldn’t write it.

The entire EPCOT project is baffling. Imagine being in charge of redoing the park, and your first instinct is to demolish Communicore West rather than upgrading Imagination; or WOL; or M:S…or building a brand new pavilion.

All that $$$ spent and literally no capacity added. I really don’t get it.

 

[Alanzo]

Capacity limits is now a tool for monetization not a problem that needs solving.

 

[networkpro]

I have to disagree here. Or at least argue that it appears to be no more or less a shopping center than what was there originally.

The problem isn't what will be, aside from the spatial confusion generated by Journey of Water sitting within the monorail ring. The problem is that it's not terribly different from what was. This entire project represents a massive waste of time and money at the expense of the guest experience for very little payoff other than "a bit prettier, greener, and up-to-date", which could have been easily achieved with the existing infrastructure.

I'll disagree with your assertations as the Western section was empty of everything except a hastily installed character meet and greet and the smell of raw sewage in the passageway. With the downfall of edutainment and corporate investment for displays in the Western section vanishing "things to come/cutting edge" (thanks to the AT&T/Ma Bell Breakup of 1984) it was a very hollow shell.

 

[James Alucobond]

Capacity limits is now a tool for monetization not a problem that needs solving.

EPCOT doesn’t even have a good value prop for that tool, though.

 

[UNCgolf]

I'll disagree with your assertations as the Western section was empty of everything except a hastily installed character meet and greet and the smell of raw sewage in the passageway. With the downfall of edutainment and corporate investment for displays in the Western section vanishing "things to come/cutting edge" (thanks to the AT&T/Ma Bell Breakup of 1984) it was a very hollow shell.

That's not the point, though -- everything they're putting in this new space could have gotten in the former building. They aren't doing anything new with it. Especially since the interior concept art of what they're building now looks almost identical to what they tore down.

 

[J4546]

Didn't they add a bunch of basement expansion stuff underneath as well? Not saying they couldn't have done all the work and kept the communicore as it was but I'm sure the bean counters figured it was more cost effective to tear down and redo vs retrofit that part of the old buildng for what they wanted. Or maybe not. Regardless I like it.

 

[UNCgolf]

Didn't they add a bunch of basement expansion stuff underneath as well? Not saying they couldn't have done all the work and kept the communicore as it was but I'm sure the bean counters figured it was more cost effective to tear down and redo vs retrofit that part of the old buildng for what they wanted. Or maybe not. Regardless I like it.

I don't think that's it -- they tore it down because they were going to build the festival center that was later cancelled.

I imagine if they could go back now they'd have simply retrofit the building instead of tearing it down.

 

[James Alucobond]

Didn't they add a bunch of basement expansion stuff underneath as well? Not saying they couldn't have done all the work and kept the communicore as it was but I'm sure the bean counters figured it was more cost effective to tear down and redo vs retrofit that part of the old buildng for what they wanted. Or maybe not. Regardless I like it.

It was torn down with the expectation that the elevated Festival Center would be erected in its place, so I doubt they initially bean-counted for this scenario specifically.

That said, I'm glad the Festival Center didn't happen. Shull's recent post denigrates the current plan while a past post seemingly lauded the site plan that included the Festival Center, but that version seemed far more disruptive to the flow of former Future World. It made more of an architectural statement, but it seemed like a nightmare to navigate.

 

[UNCgolf]

It was torn down with the expectation that the elevated Festival Center would be erected in its place, so I doubt they initially bean-counted for this scenario specifically.

That said, I'm glad the Festival Center didn't happen. Shull's recent post denigrates the current plan while a past post seemingly lauded the site plan that included the Festival Center, but that version seemed far more disruptive to the flow of former Future World. It made more of an architectural statement, but it seemed like a nightmare to navigate.

Yeah, I wasn't a fan of the Festival Center plan either.

My biggest problem with the current plan is the loss of a show fountain.