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Walt and the Promise of Progress City

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Often I have wondered what the Walt Disney World Resort would have looked like if Walt Disney had lived to see his last dream come to completion. I am sure that many of you have wondered the same thing. Walt Disney's hopes for his Florida property were for so much more than a theme park; after all he did not do sequels. The Walt Disney World Resort we have today is more than a clone of the Disneyland that opened in 1955 due to lessons learned from the California park, but it is still only a shadow of what Walt Disney dreamed.

Sam Gennawey of the SamLand blog provides his insight as an urban planner to detail Walt Disney's dreams for his Florida project, its evolution and its development in Walt and the Promise of Progress City. Gennawey introduces his readers to concepts used by urban planners when developing an area, often referring to specific examples within the Disneyland Resort to demonstrate them in action. This is followed by a detailed examination of Walt Disney's own property development projects including the Burbank studio, Disney's Carolwood Drive home, Disneyland, the failed Mineral King development, and finally the Florida project. This historical journey makes it clear that Disney's projects were becoming more complex and that Disney's true interest in building in Florida was not another theme park, since he had already built one, but the development of a working city that could demonstrate solutions to the problems of urban living through the use of technology. Genneway then walks his readers through the EPCOT of 1982 that might have been, Walt Disney's Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, not the Epcot theme park that we have today. Instead this EPCOT is a functioning city with shopping, recreational areas (including a theme park), residential areas and even a theme park much like seen in the Progress City model found in the exit of the Carousel of Progress at Disneyland during Gennawey's childhood. Gennawey concludes his book with a brief answer to if Disney's plans would have worked.

This book is full of the language of the urban planner. And though that could be seen as a drawback, I believe it is a benefit. I do not have a background in planning cities, I am not aware of the vocabulary that urban planners use and I'm definitely not aware of historic urban planning thinkers. Typically when I read a Disney book I learn a few facts that I have never been aware of before, but honestly many Disney books revisit the same material. Instead with Walt and the Promise of Progress City I learned about the world of the urban planner and because of this I was finding myself having conversations using this new vocabulary. And I was able to understand it because of the Disney linkages Gennawey provides his reader. Instead of being intimidated by these new concepts I was learning about them since he presents them in terms I can understand. Concepts like "The Quality Without a Name" can be easily understood when demonstrated in action within the Disney parks.

As a historian I truly enjoyed Gennawey's presentation of Walt Disney's evolution of building bigger and bigger projects eventually arriving at his dream of EPCOT, an entirely new city within the Disney Florida property. By linking together the various building projects that Disney oversaw, the reader can see Disney's desire for the inclusion of new technologies and improving the quality of life even if it was just an animator's desk for his Burbank Studio. Additionally, I found his discussion of the Mineral King project fresh and filled with possibilities of what could have been if the property had followed Walt Disney's designs. It is also clear that urban planners like Victor Gruen who were foremost thinkers in the city planning were influencing Disney's thoughts on cities. But Genneway makes it clear that Disney was not attempting to innovate new ideas about cities but to use the best thinking and technology to create spaces that people could truly use and enjoy. Disney's dream was gift humanity with a model of better ways to live and solve urban problems, not just an enjoyable family vacation.

Genneway's visit to the EPCOT 1982 is inspiring. First, it is not a theme park, but is instead a place where people live and work. Theme parks and hotels do not dominate this space. Instead it is a city with shopping, residential housing, schools, greenbelts, and yes that moneymaking theme park. Most surprising to me was the industrial park where companies would display the latest technology and processes. Though this EPCOT looks different than what we have today, it still includes shopping, hotels, and green spaces that exist today. While Walt's dream of a city is clearly not fully achieved by the current profile of the Walt Disney World Resort, it is amazing how much of the plans for a full city exist. For example as Genneway discusses the reading for the shopping district to be an attraction on its own right, I thought my families inclusion of Downtown Disney alongside the parks as part of our vacation planning.

If I could change one thing about Walt and the Promise of Progress City, it would be the inclusion of an index. There is so much good information about Walt Disney, the Disneyland Resort, the Walt Disney World Resort and urban planning, many readers will likely dog their copy with notes and highlighting and be used as a constant reference for what will have been. This text is an essential for any good Disney library due to its content. Interest for this book also can be found beyond Disney fans, I have friends who are not Disney enthusiasts asking to borrow my copy due to the historical content out of their own general interest. Sam Genneway in Walt and the Promise of Progress City offers a well-written, highly educational and highly interesting book that fans and non-fans of the Walt Disney World Resort will enjoy.

Review copy provided by Ayefour Publishing

This book is the first to explain - in basic architecture terms - how Disney's theme parks were designed. It is a fascinating read for anyone who enjoys spending time in Disneyland or Walt Disney World and wants a deeper understanding of why the parks were constructed as they are. While there are other good books on Disney architecture, they tend to describe the parks' architecture along the lines of "The Imagineers chose A and B to represent the American west" without explaining _why_ A and B were chosen. In contrast, Sam's book explains why these choices were made, and from where either Walt or the Disney Imagineers probably saw these architecture patterns in use before.

I have to be honest...I thought I was going to be a bit biased when it came to this book.

You see, I have been reading Sam's work online for the past few years, both on his own website, SamLand, and on MiceChat. I've enjoyed pretty much everything he's written about, and his writing style in general. Sam has always taken a very scholarly approach to every subject pertaining to Disney, and really helped me (and others) understand certain aspects of the company.

This book is more of the same, and I dare say it takes it even further than that.

I've always been a fan of Walt's original model for EPCOT; to build a brand new way that folks could live and work in a community. His Florida Project film is the stuff of legend now, and I've always had an interest in how we went from Walt's original vision of EPCOT to the Epcot we have too. Thankfully, Sam also had the same interest, and researched the subject thoroughly.

This book is an incredibly in-depth & scholarly look at Walt's vision, and just how he arrived at it. While EPCOT is the ultimate focus of the book, Sam reaches way back to the very beginnings of The Walt Disney Company to show how Walt always had an interest and an eye on city planning, even when creating Disneyland.

Sam carefully lays out Walt's vision and plans in a simple way to help the reader understand just what the heck he's talking about. City Planning, and all that it entails, is not a light subject (and doesn't really make for light reading, either!), but Sam's writing makes it easy to understand and actually fun to learn about it.

I enjoyed reading this book, and could very easily see it being used not just by Disney scholars, but in some class rooms as well. It would be a great teaching tool for those interested in city planning!

One of the things I enjoyed the most was that the last section of the book lays out, in detail, everything that encompassed Walt's EPCOT, had it been built the way he wanted it too. It was a fascinating look at a very carefully thought out plan, and really gave me a whole new appreciation for a subject I thought I already knew a lot about!

I highly recommend this book to Disney fans who want to learn more about what EPCOT could have been, and for fans who just want to expand their knowledge a little more in general. It's a fantastic read, and well worth your time.

It is a testament to the man - Walt Disney, and how many lives he truly touched, that 45 years later authors and enthusiasts can still find subject matter to write about him. It is not uncommon that the subject matter is a rehash of events and anecdotes already known with a slightly different spin. I can appreciate that, as it is pretty much what I do on my blog, and still awaiting the discovery of that one tidbit no one else knows. Maybe someday???

But, every now and then I find something that has an angle I never anticipated, or author with an unexpected talent... WALT AND THE PROMISE OF Progress City is just such a book, and Sam Gennaweyis just such as author. While Sam is an urban planner by profession, he demonstrate the talents on an historian, educator, and philosopher, all wrapped in the soul of an artist, poet and storyteller. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, urban planning (done right) is an art form unto itself, not all that recognized by those of us in our rush around never see what is right in front of us worlds.

Sam weaves a true life adventure of Walt's life through the lens of an urban designer; from his mastery of the storytelling with animation, to his unique ideas on building an amazing living environment - EPCOT. Not the Epcot we know today as a theme park in Florida, but the EPCOT (Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow) of Walt's dreams. A place where people would live, work, and play together in a city environment demonstrating the very latest in technology and human ingenuity. The pages of this journey are spun as well as any storyteller, told with a great balance of fact, anecdote, and every page imaginatively entertaining and understandable by both expert and novice. I easily see this book easily as a text in a class on architecture or urban planning as it would fit into a writing course.

For the Disney fan just developing and interest or the Disney fan searching for a deeper understanding of the man - Walt Disney, this is a must read addition to any Disney collection. I know I'm glad it is in mine, and I highly recommend it.

Since 1966, the world has been captivated by the vision that Walt Disney presented in his Project Florida film. It was such an amazing and inspiring vision, that Walt's brother Roy was able to persuade the State of Florida to pass legislation that would allow the Disney Company almost unfettered power to develop the City of Tomorrow. After Walt's passing in 1966 and then Roy's death in 1971, the Company wasn't able to complete Walt's dream as laid out in the film, but many of the innovative technologies found their way into the Vacation Kingdom. Regardless, the Company battled the press, local governments and the public with their outcries of "Where is EPCOT Center?" As we all know, Disney finally opened EPCOT Center, the theme park, in 1982 and it was a far cry from Walt's 1966 vision.

There has been a lot written about the Disney theme parks with an emphasis on the creation of EPCOT Center and the variance from Walt's ideas. Much of the critical writing has focused on trying to dissect where Disney went wrong or strayed from Walt's vision and promise. This is where Sam Gennawey's book differs and offers a new look at what happened and what we might have seen. Sam has had a varied and long career that has led him to being an urban planner. Being a Disney fan and an urban planner makes Sam an obvious choice to postulate on Walt, urban design and what might have been.

Walt and the Promise of Progress City is an exhaustive and thoroughly enjoyable book about Walt's EPCOT City, how the ideas were developed and what a visit to 1982 EPCOT Center could have been. Since Sam is an urban planner, you would assume that he would write with jargon and discuss overly-complex theories. On the contrary, Sam has written a book dealing with fairly complex subjects that any Disney fan will be able to read, enjoy and digest.

Sam's book takes a different path than what I expected, which is a great thing. I assumed that Sam would just discuss what could of happened and why it didn't turn into Walt's vision. Instead, Sam discusses how everything that Walt Disney did from the first Disney Bros. Studios through the Project Florida film and how Walt applied everything he learned to Progress City. Sam looks at each project and analyzes the steps Walt took and the progression of his ideas. It was quite eye-opening to connect the Burbank Studio, Tom Sawyer Island, the Mineral King project and the World's Fair to urban planning designs and theories.

After Sam explains all of the projects that led Walt to want to create a Utopian city, he takes us on a visit to the EPCOT Center of 1982 that could have been. Sam takes us place-by-place through what an average visitor would experience at EPCOT Center. We start wit the jetport and end with the industrial park; in between, Sam covers the governance, living in EPCOT, shopping, entertainment and transportation. It is an amazing journey where you realize, that for every dream Walt had for his new town, at least half of them came to fruition in the first ten years at Walt Disney World.

Walt and the Promise of Progress City is an inspiring tale that any fan of Walt Disney, the theme parks or urban design will enjoy. Sam takes us on a journey through urban design and planning that encompasses everything Walt did to discuss the vision. Although Sam covers some fairly intense theories, the book is not an academic treatise. Sam does a fantastic job of interpreting urban planning theories into a format that is accessible to the layperson.

I applaud Sam for tackling such a divisive subject as EPCOT and the oft-stated Internet battle cry of "What Would Walt Do?" None of us can say for certain what would of happened had Walt lived longer, but it is obvious that Sam understands urban planning and took a storied look at the project and analyzed it with intelligence, thought and a sense of wonder.

This is definitely a very well researched book, and for the most part it manages to maintain an entertaining tone, only occasionally delving into textbook-style territory. Sam definitely knows his stuff and is excited about it, and thus is able to talk about city planning in a conversational tone, which helps keep the subject matter from seeming too dry.

I think the best part of the book is the imagined tour of the unbuilt city, which as Sam describes it would have been spectacular.

I'd highly recommend watching the full "Florida Project" presentation on YouTube as a companion to the book. I'd also recommend checking out what's left of the city model @ The Magic Kingdom and obviously visiting EPCOT to help round out one's appreciation of how, for better or worse, the dream presented in this book went in a completely different direction when Walt died....

This work shows why Walt Disney has had such a lasting effect on urban planning. He studied and understood how we human beings function in relation to place. It's a critical piece of the puzzle of what attracts us and what distracts us from a specific dot on the map. Mr. Gennawey does a superb job of telling us the story of why Walt Disney was the best person to plan Disneyland and why it and Walt Disney World are successful pieces of real estate in a world full of examples of what is not successful. Control is a key component, but does not ensure success. Success is ensured by careful observation of the human condition and Walt Disney was a master observer with great common sense.

I have a lot of friends who are Disney theme park aficionados. I am not one of them and - even though I have been to both Walt Disney World and Disneyland - I don't spend a lot of time following Disney themed web sites. However, on occasion, my Disney friends have passed on some of the Samland columns on MiceChat and I have really enjoyed what I have read. I especially like his take on the mash up between urban design and the theme parks. So when I saw that he released a new book I had to check it out - EXCELLENT decision. The book goes beyond the theme parks to become a gentle introduction to very complex urban design concepts. Plus, the story of Walt's dream and focused pursuit of building communities was a compelling story. Sam's writing style is easy on the eyes and makes for an wonderfully entertaining read. Whether your passion is urban planning, theme parks or history, you will find a lot to like. Highly recommended.

I was anxious to recieve this book as I had heard great things about it. Well, my informers did not disapoint, this was a great read. Plenty of interesting points and tales I had not known prior to reading. A very cool look at Walt's passion of urban planing. Highly recomended!

Very scholarly and informative. A good "read". Disney has got to have a wealth of blueprints, renderings and etc. of the Progress City, aka. EPCOT city of tomorrow. I would pay twice the price for an illustrated guide...

Somebody, please!