My Epcot: Future World renovation ideas

[cloudboy]

I have been thinking about Future World at Epcot, and how I think it could be done a little bit better. So here are some of my ideas for a renovation to Future World. Sorry about the length – believe it or not this is a condensed version!

Communicore

What I want to do is to make it easier for guests to get to the East and West side of Future World, and to bring a little more traffic into some of the slower out of the way attractions. I also want to add a few features and renovate a few pavilions

The major change I want to make is to split Communicore (sorry – Innoventions) into four completely separate buildings. I want guests when they enter Epcot to go to one or the other sides of Epcot, and not right down the center. I also want to create a more East-West axis (Spaceship Earth is to the North) between the two sides instead of having them so separated. The current Innoventions building, as well as the post-show building to Spaceship Earth, will be demolished. A new, slightly larger, post show area for Spaceship Earth would be built, and then four other buildings. In total I plan on extending these buildings a bit to the east and west to create more room. More on the contents of these buildings later. There is a link at the bottom that shows what I am talking about. You will also notice that the big area in between the two sides of Innoventions is decreased – the stuff in this area will head over to Imagination.

As far as they facades, I plan on giving them an Art Deco/Art Modern feel. I plan on using quite a bit of lighting at night, and there will be quite a few water fountains. One thing I plan on doing is putting a fountain on top of the Spaceship Earth post show building. The idea is a bubbling fountain, that when mixed with the LED rotating effect for Spaceship Earth, makes it look like the sphere is floating. The big fountain will be redesigned and become longer and thinner – the water show will be kept, but would integrate both the main fountain and several smaller fountains around the courtyard area.

Here is a link to a quick sketch of what I am thinking.

 

[cloudboy]

Pavilion Renovations

To start off with, the Universe of Energy and Test Track buildings would get a façade update to tie them in with the Art Deco/Modern look. I think Test Track doesn’t look quite right with the solid metallic core with the structuralist track around it. Living Seas would get a better lighting job, but the rides in these will remain the same. Wonders of Life will take on a more Chemistry/Biology theme to it. Cranium Command will stay, but a new dark ride will be built, sort of along the line of the old Adventure through Inner Space dealing with atoms and such. There will also be a few scientific displays, such as a giant Table of Elements that actually shows how the different elements look. The outside of Wonders of Life would get a much wider walkway (draw crowds in better), including a large water cascade that flows along side of it.

On the other side, the Ice Station Cool would be relocated on the side of the South-West new Communicore building. Journey into Imagination would get a lot of attention. First, the Honey I Shrunk the Pavilion film would be redone. The various fiber-optic pavers and kinetic sculptures would be placed around the pavilion. The water fountains would be renovated and more would be added. The idea is a place with lots of things happening and lots of special effects. These fountains would extend into the water area between Future World and World Showcase, and would include kinetic water sculptures and a “chasing” water fountain that would loop around the pond “jumping” over the walkway. Inside, the Imaginarium would contain a bunch of interactive art type exhibits – less structured than the old Imaginarium. Think of the room where stepping on the lights would make sound, or the pin table, or the black-light room. It would be a discovery museum for grown-ups.

 

[cloudboy]

Communicore

OK, so what will be in the new Communicore Buildings? Well, the building that serves as the pre-show for Spaceship Earth will be similar to what Innoventions is now, only that it will be a bit smaller and focus more on communications technologies.

The Northwest building will house an Art of Disney store, a restaurant, and some general services areas. The Northeast building will also house a restaurant, this one will be a bit bigger than the one on the west side. It will also have some kind of store and a small exhibit area for floating small exhibits. The Southeast building will primarily house a large store and some kind of specialty food type establishment.

The Southwest building will house a new attraction. This is a walk though attraction (no vehicles) but it will have a few moving walkways. The name of it is “yesterday’s Tomorrow” and will be an exhibit of various future-prediction displays. There will be short movie clips such as the old newsreels, models such as the ones along the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, and lots of images, and the finale will be a giant model of tomorrow, perhaps the one that was used in the old World of Motion ride. There will be a store at the end of the exhibit with a bunch of retro-modern Disney merchandise.

There is another building, which I want to redo, too. The old Odyssey restaurant would either be rebuilt or reconditioned, and in addition to the services such as first aid, would house a special exhibit “Walt’s Vision of the Future”. This would be walk-through exhibit that would look at Walt’s vision of Epcot, the history of Epcot and how it became what it is today, as well as a brief look at how the Walt Disney World Complex, including Celebration, has become it’s own city of tomorrow.

OK, Enough babbling. So what do you think – what do you like and don’t like. And what is everyone else’s ideas for Future World and the pavilions?

 

[josh_e_washie]

Why the art deco/art modern feel? Personally, I think that style is a bit TOO grown up, I wouldn't put it everywhere, however it is interesting (the rest of the ideas)

 

[stitch131313]

I like how you used Walt's vision for EPCOT.

 

[maelstrom]

I think that TT and UoE look fine as they are, no need to change them. The water features and such around JII sound interesting.

 

[cloudboy]

I went with the Art Mordern look because I wanted something somewhat futurish, but that had a good positive feel to it, and I felt that the "streamline" approach would look best. Kind of that optimism of the 30s and 40s. I thought about a few other ideas, but I didn't want to copy Tommorowland, and I was worried that anything truely modern would become dated so fast.

I redid the outside of Universe of Energy because I wanted to try and tie in the outside pavilions with the Communicore buildings. As far as test track goes, I guess it is just a personal opinion. But I just see this ultra-tech modern (albeit quite dated) cylinder of metal surrounded by a totally different test tack facade. I think the two don't work well together, but that is just my opinion. It is one of the minor things done.

The water features I think are one of my favorite parts - I remember way back in the eighties watching Epcot magazine and how neat the fountains were then, but I think there is so much more that can be done nowadays.