Changes

The genesis of Epcot began in the early 1960s with Walt Disney himself. After having many grandchildren, Walt began to worry about the world they would grow up in. He looked around the cities of America and thought he could do better. The cities were full of crime, disorganized, dirty and hectic. Disneyland was the opposite of these things , and Walt decided he could take the Disneyland philosophy and apply it to the real world. Disneyland also proved that Walt and his company was were very efficient in the art of building and designing buildings. With that idea in mind, he began to read about how to start a city.

The This idea of a utopia city got it's name in 1966. Walt Disney narrated a video in witch which he described his dream city. The city would be housed near Disney World, and would be called the Experimental Community of Tomorrow or EPCOT. Walt called EPCOT, “the most exciting, by far the most important” important,” and the heart of what he planned to do in Disney World. The city would take its cues from the new ideas and technologies of American industry and would be a “community of tomorrow”. Walt wanted to plan and design every detail of the city, in order to meet the public's needs. Industry was also expected to partner with Disney to solve the problems of the society. Walt said that EPCOTT EPCOT would never be finished, it would always be improving. He hoped that when it was built, it would house about 20,000 people.

EPCOT was laid out to be the perfect city. It took it's design from Disneyland, in that their would be a central hub that roads and monorails would connect to the other parts of the city. The center “hub” of EPCOT would have been a large business area. The area would have been under a dome that would control the temperature and weather. The busines area would have also included office buildings, shopping, and the “crown jewel” of EPCOT, the Cosmopolitan Hotel. The hotel would be located at the center of EPCOT and would be 30 stories tall. The Hotel would also house (, in the basement) , the transportation lobby of EPCOT. Underground, People Movers would transport people to the various parts of EPCOT. Cars and Trucks trucks would also have underground highways that they would be able to use. No gas vehicles would travel above land. Also in the business area of EPCOT The hub would be feature offices, theaters, nightlife, restaurants, and a shopping center featuring items from around the world. It would also feature offices, theaters, nightlife and restaurants.

Outside of the business area would be the high density apartment housing. Citizens who lived here would have the luxury of being close to theg the business area, but would have live in apartment complexes. Outside of the apartment housing was to be the recreation area. The recreation area would have consisted of things such as pools, parks, churches and schools. Beyond the recreation area would have been the residential neighborhood. This is where a large number of families would have lived. The area would have consisted of housing and small recreation areas such as playgrounds.

The final part of EPCOT would have been the industrial center. This is where companies from around the world would work on various projects. Walt wanted guests to be able to visit these companies and hopefully take some inspiration for industry home with themhim. In order to get Citizens of EPCOT would take a monorail to the rest of Walt Disney World and the EPCOT industrial center, citizens of EPCOT would take a monorail. The Monorail monorail and the People Mover were expected to be the main methods of transportation in EPCOT thus eliminating traffic.

In 1978 Disney announced to the world they would be constructing a new theme park, the EPCOT Center. Construction began on May 1, 1979 and was completed September 27, 1982. Epcot went under 19 different design renovations before the final World Showcase/Future World design was accepted. Originally, the east side of Future World was supposed to have shallow lagoons. This idea was eventually scrapped and East Future World became the dry side, while West Future World became the wet one. 4,000 workers worked on phase 1 of Epcot. 10,000 workers and 3,000 designers were used in total during the creation of Epcot. <!-- This included moving an astonishing. -->

While the basic plans for Epcot had now been finalized, Imagineers decided that they needed an icon, something in the skyline to draw guests into the park. The Imagineers liked the idea of the dome that Montreal had built for the 1967 World's Fair, but wanted something a little more dramatic. What they ended up building would be the world's first full geometric spherestructure, Spaceship Earth. Science fiction writer Raymond Bradbury helped design the sphere, which was 160 feet in diameter. Disney also enlisted the help of MIT to determine what kind of pressure the sphere would create under it. Disney feared that the pressure would create a wind tunnel underneath the sphere, but this ended up being untrue. Another problem that engineers faced, was how to hold the sphere up. There had been little data available on geometric spheres so Disney had to look inward for a solution. What they decided to do was put six large legs between 120 and 160 feet into the ground for support. The legs were then reinforced at their base, before the sphere was built. Inside the sphere an elevator, track, and show scenes for Spaceship Earth were built.

There is are actually two spheres located within Spaceship earth and - an outer sphere and an innersphere. The inside sphere is made of steel, pyramid shaped pipes. The outside outer sphere was then covered created by covering the outside with Alucobond pyramids, a polyester plastic, which was finally covered in two sheets of aluminum. The two layer sphere solved two problems for Imagineers. The first, was the need to protect Spaceship Earth from fire and weather damage. The Alucobond protects the inside sphere, while also looking pleasant for guests. The other problem that Alucobond solved was the issue of run-off rainwater. Imagineers left a gap between the Alucobond pyramids which allows water to run into a gutter system in the inner sphere before eventually draining in World Showcase.

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