Excerpt from Corporate Empathy by Vinny Tafuro
Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow (EPCOT)
Growing up on Long Island I lived only a couple of miles from Levittown, a planned community of
mass produced homes developed between 1947 and 1951. The returning veterans of World War II
fueled much of this growth as well as similar suburban growth throughout the country. The
economies of scale that production lines created allowed large numbers of Americans to own a
home.
William Levitt, the developer of Levittown, is an example of an innovator following Henry Ford’s
concept of providing a high quality product inexpensively to the masses in order to improve life. Ford,
passionate about automation, experimented with city planning using technology. Walt Disney, a
friend of Ford, shared these same qualities culminating with his vision for the Experimental Prototype
Community Of Tomorrow, more commonly known as EPCOT to be built at Disney World in Florida.
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, that will always be introducing and testing and demonstrating new materials and new
systems; and EPCOT will always be a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of
American free enterprise. I don’t believe there is a challenge anywhere in the world that’s more
important to people everywhere than finding solutions to the problems of our cities.
– Walt Disney
Unlike the theme park that bears the name today, Disney’s own view of EPCOT was that of an
ever-evolving experimental community.
Well a project like this is so vast in scope that no one company alone can make it a reality. But if
we can bring together the technical know-how of American industry and the creative imagination of
the Disney organization, I’m confident we can create right here in Disney World a showcase to the
world of the American free enterprise system. I believe we can build a community that more people
talk about and come to look at than any other area in the world, and with your cooperation I’m sure
that this Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow can influence the future of city living for
generations to come. It’s an exciting challenge, a once in a lifetime opportunity for everyone who
participates. Speaking for myself and the entire Disney organization, we’re ready to go right now.
– Walt Disney
Disney’s vision of EPCOT was why Orlando and the state of Florida granted the company
expansive rights over the property Disney owned. The plans to develop EPCOT would require Disney
to make land use and building decisions free from politics allowing them to adapt and change more
quickly. The agreement goes so far as to even allow the company to construct a nuclear power plant
on the property if it desires.
Excerpt from Corporate Empathy by Vinny Tafuro
Here the Disney staff will work with individual companies to create a showcase of industry at work. In
attractive park-like settings, the 6 million people who visit Disney World each year will look behind the
scenes at experimental prototype plants, research and development laboratories, and computer centers
for major corporations.
So this is EPCOT, the heart of Disney World. In other parts of the country, a community the size of
this prototype could become part of an entire city complex, composed of many such communities,
planned and built a few miles apart. In Disney World about 20 thousand people will live in EPCOT.
Their homes will be built in ways that permit ease of change so that new products may continuously
be demonstrated. Their schools will welcome new ideas so that everyone who grows up in EPCOT
will have skills in pace with today’s world. EPCOT will be a working community with employment for
all; and everyone who lives here will have a responsibility to help keep this community an exciting
living blueprint of the future.
– Disney World Promotional Video
Five months after Walt Disney’s death in December 1966, Florida Governor Claude R. Kirk, Jr.
signed into Florida law the statutes creating the Reedy Creek Improvement District that gave the
Disney organization almost total autonomy within its borders. However, with Walt gone, the publicly
traded Walt Disney Company had lost its founder and his unique ability to innovate and inspire. His
brother Roy O. Disney tried to carry the EPCOT project forward but was unable to convince Disney’s
board of directors to do so.