EPCOT (concept)

The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, shortened to EPCOT, was an unfinished concept for a planned community, intended to sit on a swath of undeveloped land near Orlando, Florida. It was created by Walt Disney in collaboration with the designers at WED Enterprises which would later become Walt Disney Imagineering. Based on ideas stemming from modernism and futurism, and inspired by architectural literature about city planning, Disney intended EPCOT to be a utopian autocratic company town, although he struggled to somehow include residents in community governance. One of the primary stated aims of EPCOT was to replace urban sprawl as the organizing force of community planning in the United States in the 1960s. Disney intended EPCOT to be a real city, and it was planned to feature commercial, residential, industrial, and recreational centers, connected by a mass multimodal transportation system, that would, he said, "Never cease to be a living blueprint of the future".

Following Disney's death in 1966, EPCOT plans were shelved. In 1971, Walt Disney World emerged, with EPCOT opening in 1982 as a theme park and influencing the nearby community of Celebration, Florida. Elements from the original EPCOT vision endured, shaping aspects of the modern Disney World park, such as the Monorail System and the Utilidor system.

EPCOT will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed but will always be introducing, testing, and demonstrating new materials and systems. And EPCOT will always be a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise. — Walt Disney, describing the genesis of EPCOT

Forerunners of Disney's EPCOT plan include Tomorrowland in Disneyland, which already featured monorails and PeopleMovers, and the Monsanto House of the Future (1957), which was designed by architects from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Architect/planner Victor Gruen's plans to convert the site of the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair was also a significant influence on EPCOT, Disney Imagineer Marty Sklar said. Concerned with the "urban crisis" of the time, which he believed was one of the biggest problems facing society, Disney also consulted urban planning literature, including books by Ebenezer Howard, founder of the architectural "garden city movement", and Victor Gruen.

Numerous locations were proposed for EPCOT, including St. Louis, Niagara Falls, Washington, D.C., New Jersey, and New York City's World Fair site. Disney also considered incorporating an experimental city into his plans for a Palm Beach, Florida development with RCA and investor John D. MacArthur in 1959. Eventually, Central Florida was chosen. Commenting on the choice, Disney said, "Here in Florida we've enjoyed something that we've never enjoyed at Disneyland: a blessing of size. There's enough land here to hold all the ideas and plans we could possibly imagine." The plans for "The Florida Project", officially dubbed Disney World, called for a Disneyland-style theme park and resort area, EPCOT, an industrial park, an airport, and an entrance complex.

Disney quietly purchased undeveloped swampland in Osceola County and Orange County using dummy corporations to avoid price gouging. By June 1965, Disney had acquired 27,433 acres—twice the size of Manhattan—for an estimated $5.1 million ($50,886,906 in 2024). Walt Disney had planned to announce Disney World on November 15, 1965, publicly. Still, after the Orlando Sentinel broke the story of Disney's land purchase, Disney asked then-Florida Governor W. Haydon Burns to confirm the story on October 25. His announcement boasted that the new theme park would be, "The greatest attraction in the history of Florida." The official announcement was made on the previously planned November 15 date, with Disney joining Burns in Orlando for the press conference. Dissatisfied with the zoning regulations he had to deal with in Anaheim, Disney developed the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID) for the property. With the approval of the Florida legislature and the governor, as enshrined in the Reedy Creek Improvement Act, the District had most of the powers of a Florida county.

To lobby the Florida legislature to approve the RCID and persuade American industries to participate in the project, a short film was shot at the Walt Disney Studios on October 27, 1966, two months before Disney's death. Written by Marty Sklar and directed by Art Vitarelli, the 25-minute film is hosted by Disney, who explains the plans for Disney World, focusing on how EPCOT would interrelate with other aspects of the property.

The film, utilizing concept art and highly technical animation, was a start to the conceptualization of EPCOT. The EPCOT philosophy, as it became known, included showcasing the development, testing, and use of new materials and ideas from American industries to find solutions to urban problems. EPCOT would always be in a state of becoming, the philosophy detailed, focusing on the needs and happiness of residents, and generating demand for new technologies.