Word: epcot
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Disney in 1984, Eisner had his first working dinner with some of the company's executives and offhandedly suggested they build a hotel in the shape of Mickey Mouse. They were shocked -- and galvanized. But some of the Old Guard was not amused. Ground had already been broken at Epcot for a new hotel complex, and Disney's partner in the project was determined to hire a conventional architect to create a conventionally upscale hotel -- a meretricious riot of Trumpian brass and glass. Eisner, however, wanted Graves, at the time the hottest architect in the country, to design...
...Disney World, Avalon would be strollable and full of shops and parks, and like Disney World, it would be built in the middle of nowhere. In nearby Osceola County, Disney is getting into the business of residential utopias, harking back, in a way, to Walt's original concept for Epcot. His Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow was intended to be sealed under a glass dome to keep out heat and humidity. It was to have had stores, apartments, schools, churches, offices, marinas, parks, golf courses, a monorail, a vacuum-tube trash-disposal system, a central computer controlling everything from streetlights...
...Epcot never took that form, in part, according to author John Taylor, because Walt realized he would have had to subsidize residents to attract them to his closely monitored community. Epcot today is a permanent world's fair that includes two sets of pavilions: scientific ones that celebrate mankind's technological mastery of the universe and a clutch of foreign lands without masses of foreigners -- 11 cultural boutiques that fit around a man-made lagoon as a symbol of human fellowship. "Probably it's much cleaner here than some of those countries you would go to," says visitor Sandy Hyde...
...current generation of social engineers has proposed an Epcot-inspired "new town" called Celebration, where the cultural center will be known as a "learning resort," streets will be "themed" in styles borrowed from Charleston and Venice, and a special site will showcase industrial wizardry used to design everything from tennis balls to compact discs. The 8,400-acre property, near Kissimmee, will also have a grocery store with computerized carts that display suggested menus...
...concept of Epcot is resonating through another fantastical project, which is being promoted off Port Canaveral, 40 miles to the east. Developers have proposed a $1 billion "city of tomorrow" that would be built on the world's largest cruise ship, capable of handling 5,600 passengers. The floating city, like Epcot, would mix pleasure and pedagogy: alongside the three hotel towers, casinos and villages aboard the nearly quarter-mile-long vessel would be a 100,000-volume library and a giant conference center. At sea or in port, Phoenix World City would be a "place where the best...