Long before there was EPCOT Center, there was EPCOT--the Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow. Conceptual designs for EPCOT were unveiled at a press conference in February, 1967, shortly after Walt Disney's death the previous December. Press materials provided this description of the city's dynamic Transportation Lobby:
This cutaway rendering shows how differing modes of transportation will be channeled into non-conflicting traffic flows below the pedestrian level of the city. The Transportation Lobby (top half of photo) will be located at the very heart of EPCOT, directly beneath the 30-story theme hotel. This will be the central arrival-departure for all passengers using the monorail or the newly-designed "WEDway People Mover."
Wow.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting! Monorails and Peoplemovers together on the upper plaza is great, maybe some day years from now they'll be using both in a more expanded service...
ReplyDeleteThe Future that never was!
ReplyDeleteyou know, I've seen some pictures of this before but this one in particular really shows the brilliance of this design. Stacking different modes of transportation vertically like this really is smart - it would reduce the amount of road "spaghetti" in major cities. Though this was never built I think Disney was still ahead of his time and this type of smart design is inevitable: it'll show up everywhere eventually.
ReplyDeleteI wish the US would get over its stigma of mass transportation.
Check out Walt's original EPCOT film on Disney Treasures DVD Tomorrowland. It is cool, too bad they didn't make it exactly like he planned.
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