Progress City, USA has a long and comprehensive look at the planning and early prototypes for EPCOT Center (now Epcot) at Walt Disney World. It's a fascinating, year-by-year look at the progress of corporate futurism and the way that designers, corporate sponsors, and bean-counters attempt to converge on a vision for the future:
Some of the beginning concepts for this "information marketplace" include:
Telstore – a Future World "video bookstore" where guests could experience first-hand the newly emerging world of video information for the home.
Future World Travel Port – an electronic travel port where visitors could "dial-in" their travel interests and other itinerary requirements and watch an "instant preview" of their upcoming vacation.
FuturePlan – a career center concept where immediate information would be offered about careers for young people and the newly developing field of second careers for retiring citizens.
Informat Arcade – a concept providing new experiences for the public in information retrieval, which would include a "Casino of information" in game-playing format … taking the penny arcade of the past into the information age.
Other ideas for the Communicore will be developed by joint task forces of Disney designers and industry participants and may include such things as The Good Health Emporium, the drug store of tomorrow and The Future World Office, a paperless place of business.
EPCOT: Origins – Master Plan 5, 1977
(via The Disney Blog)
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- Incredible Epcot concept painting
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