What is the most intriguing project in Disney’s history? I suspect that many fans would join me in answering, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.
Walt Disney’s concept for what became the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida extended far beyond a collection of theme parks and hotels. Walt envisioned a futuristic working community in Florida — one that included housing, businesses and recreation for tens of thousands of residents. Years after Walt’s death, Disney used the EPCOT acronym as the name for Walt Disney World’s second theme park. But many fans and futurists have wondered how the original concept might have developed had Walt lived to see it through.
The Walt Disney Company has developed residential communities in the years since, however. In the 1990s, it opened Celebration, a development inspired by the New Urbanism movement, adjacent to its Florida resort. A decade later, it opened Golden Oak, a luxury gated community surrounded by Walt Disney World property. Now, Disney is opening its third residential community and first in Southern California. Last month, Disney invited me and other reporters to tour Cotino, the first “Storyliving by Disney” community, in Rancho Mirage.
Concept art of the lagoon beach at the Cotino Storyliving neighborhood designed by Walt Disney Imagineering in Rancho Mirage. (Courtesy of Disney)More from Robert Niles
Fans pick the winners and losers on the theme park scoreboard Disney can do better than 3D gimmicks Disneyland price increases probably won’t keep fans away Stand-up comics’ Saudi controversy a warm-up for Six Flags? Can Universal’s Scooby-Doo crossover live up to its potential?Disney’s builder partners have completed only a handful of the planned 1,932 homes in the development, but Disney has opened its Artisan Club for Cotino residents. Club amenities include a 24-acre lake by Crystal Lagoons, a lakefront bar, the Architects Fork restaurant and recreation facilities. Given the five-figure annual dues, yes, those facilities include several pickleball courts, for the generation of Disney fans able to afford all this.
The visual highlight of the Artisan Club campus is Parr House, a stunning real-life creation of the iconic mid-century modern safe house from “Incredibles 2,” which stands over Cotino’s lake like Disney’s first Pixar-themed castle. Otherwise, the Disney touches are subtle. The light fixture above the Plot Twist bar comprises pages from Disney fairy tales. Imagineers’ sketches decorate the walls in the restaurant.
Concept art of the Artisan Club bar at the Cotino Storyliving neighborhood designed by Walt Disney Imagineering in Rancho Mirage. (Courtesy of Disney)Like Golden Oak, Cotino is a gated community whose residential streets are inaccessible to all but a few very wealthy Disney fans. Yet, like Celebration, Cotino eventually will include retail and recreation elements that will be open to the public. Give Disney credit for getting the club open early in Cotino’s development, though. Too many buyers in other luxury developments have been caught when developers failed to deliver promised community amenities.
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I have no doubt that if Disney could make as much money building a real-life EPCOT for the masses as it expects from its Storyliving communities, it would try. But Disney faces the same economic forces and tax rules that push almost all new real estate development toward luxury rather than working-class neighborhoods.
Walt Disney combined imagination with engineering to build the modern theme park business. We might need a new Walt-like genius to push American leaders to make projects like his original EPCOT possible for today’s families.
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Robert Niles covers the themed entertainment industry as the editor of ThemeParkInsider.com.
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