Epcot Center book....

[DDPGambit]

A few years ago when I was in middle school, i found a book in the school library that was all about Epcot. It was somewhat old(early to mid eighties). It had a hardcover, with a purple-looking spaceship earth on it. It was pretty thick too. It had pics from the conception and construction phases, plus pics from all the attractions. I have never seen it again. If anyone knows the full title or any info on where I can buy a copy, i'd be much apreciative. Thanks!

 

[DisJosh]

Sounds cool......Ive never heard of it though. Also, i thought I would just let you know it is no longer Epcot center now it is just EPCOT.

 

[DDPGambit]

Yea, i know its only Epcot since like, 95 or 96, but the book was from when it was Epcot Center. One thing i dont get is why they called it Epcot Center. Experimental Prototype Community of Tommorrow Center?

 

[DisJosh]

Dont know why......thats a good one I'll look into. BTW welcome to the board!!

 

[popkid]

i'm guessing they called it that because of Walt's original idea for what EPCOT was too be...

i have a video of Walt disussing plans for EPCOT and describing it - and basically, he was planning on building an entire city!!!

he goes into detail discussing roads, and methods of transportation available (monorails, and peoplemovers) - as well as suburban areas and 'industrial' areas.

i wonder at what point they had to scale things back a bit and limited Walt's original vision to the EPCOT that we have today...

 

[DisneyFreak]

The book is simply titled, "Walt Disney's Epcot Center" and it is currently out of print.

Celebration, FL is more of a continued step of Walt's original Epcot idea.

 

[epcot71]

im here to help with ur questions!-im looking at the book right now-its called walt disneys epcot center-the publisher is abrams

 

[MrPromey]

Originally posted by popkid

i wonder at what point they had to scale things back a bit and limited Walt's original vision to the EPCOT that we have today...

That would probably be somewhere around the day Walt Died. The Disney Company has always been in the entertainment field. Social engineering is something else all together. With Walt gone, there probably weren't too many people around that were exactly excited over this particular bet-the-company project... Not to mention without Walt around, it would have been very difficult to convince investors that the project was doable (which, long term it probably wasn't, anyway)

 

[kayarei]

i know the book you're talking about. they sold it in the park for the first few years it was open. i bought it when it first came out and have since lost it...
i just did a search on ebay and found a copy (try searching for "EPCOT book"). it's called, "Walt Disney's EPCOT Center: Dreaming the New World of Tomorrow", hardcover, about 230 pages. there is also an older (i think it's older) book with fewer pages (127) called "Walt Disney's EPCOT Center: Creating the New World of Tomorrow".

 

[MrPromey]

Originally posted by DisneyFreak
The book is simply titled, "Walt Disney's Epcot Center" and it is currently out of print.

Celebration, FL is more of a continued step of Walt's original Epcot idea.

A lot of people say that but it's really not. I think it's looked at that way because it is a Disney run community but almost none of Walt's original concepts are in place at Celebration. Instead of embracing the future with an ultra modern community, Celebration is incredibly contemporary in it's planning and even features retro-architecture which is at complete odds with the plans for EPCOT. Instead of having a wide range of incomes in it's population, Celebration is make up almost exclusively of upper middle, to upper class. In fact, most of the people who work in Celebration could not afford to live there based on their incomes. The original plan called for heavy use of public transportation through various environmentally friendly ways. While, the people in the downtown area are in walking distance to just about everything the number of cars lining the streets on any give day is a clear indication that personal transportation, is still the method of choice to the Celebration citizen... The corporate sponsors that were supposed to subsidize this ultra-modern and expensive city are also not present... There are a lot of other things too, but this is all that comes to mind at the moment. What I'm actually getting at with this is that Celebration and the original concept of EPCOT are more different than they are alike. Aside from the fact that it's Disney run and people do really live there, there isn't much of anything that's the same. Possibly the biggest difference though, is that Celebration is a financial success - something EPCOT probably would never have been...

 

[WDW-Imagineer]

Originally posted by DDPGambit
Yea, i know its only Epcot since like, 95 or 96, but the book was from when it was Epcot Center. One thing i dont get is why they called it Epcot Center. Experimental Prototype Community of Tommorrow Center?

I've always liked EPCOT Center much better than plain ol' Epcot.

I think the reason we never saw Epcot as Walt saw it was the massive scale of it and the ridiculous cost needed to build it. As said above Epcot pretty much died with Walt, but I believe had Walt not died, Epcot would still not be built in the way Walt had dreamed it.

 

[MrPromey]

Originally posted by WDW-Imagineer


I've always liked EPCOT Center much better than plain ol' Epcot.

I think the reason we never saw Epcot as Walt saw it was the massive scale of it and the ridiculous cost needed to build it. As said above Epcot pretty much died with Walt, but I believe had Walt not died, Epcot would still not be built in the way Walt had dreamed it.

I agree, Walt was notorious for the amount of control he insisted on having over EVERYTHING in his projects. You can control animatronics, you can control cast members, to a degree you can even control guests but residents? People living out their day to day lives under your microscope. Sorry...