Could Walt’s Vision of EPCOT Be Applied to Shaping the Future of LeBreton Flats - by Grace Hill

-
Could Walt’s Vision Of EPCOT Be Applied to Shaping the Future of LeBreton Flats?
By: Grace Hill


Hi, my name is Grace Hill and I am a proud learner at Blue Sky School, a not for profit Independent school in the Kanata South area. At Blue Sky school we like to reach for the stars, and that is exactly what we are doing in our most current project: Developing the LeBreton Flats area.

Our plan is to gather public input by running several workshop to citizens of the Ottawa area of all ages. This means schools, workspaces, and universities. Then, we are hoping to gather all that input and shape it into a report to send off to the current organization who plans to develop LeBreton Flats, The National Capital Commision.

This is a huge, ambitious project, and there is so much to learn! So, of course, the first steps for embarking on this journey were learning more and researching about this topic. This is a very open ended first step and we were all fully expecting we would go on different learning journeys, I just never knew I would get into something as magical as this!


One of our first research prompts (given to us by our project manager aka teacher Shauna Pollock) was to look in to some of the well thought out public places in the world. This was an especially intriguing prompt to me so I decided to dig into this subject a bit. Shauna mentioned as an example of this was the original plan of EPCOT. I did not know a whole lot about this place before and it sounded interesting enough so I started looking into it more. I was absolutely blown away by what I learned!



EPCOT stands for the “Experimental, Prototype City of Tomorrow”. It is a place that is ever changing and evolving into something new. This vision was right from the mind of the Mickey Mouse creator himself, Walt Disney. Walt Disney started his career as an animator and is commonly known for creating the first ever animation with ‘Mickey Mouse’. Continuing on this path he also created the groundbreaking production of “Snow White and the Seven dwarfs” He was a pioneer in the industry , and was recognized for this globally after winning multiple awards! After a while though, he got bored of this and moved on to other projects such as creating and opening the first ever Theme park of  “Disneyland” In California. The park was a huge success, and there was nothing like it! Who would have thought taking something so imaginary like cartoon characters and princesses, and creating it in the world around us! Nevertheless, Walt Disney moved on yet again to create another groundbreaking ideation of “Disney World”. Everyone knows it, everyone loves it, but not everyone know what his original plan was for a portion of the park called “EPCOT.”


(Disneyland)

“The most exciting, and by far the most important part of our Florida Project  - in fact the heart of everything we will be doing in Disney world- is the Experimental, Prototype City of Tomorrow, we will call it EPCOT” Walt Disney said as he was releasing some plans and blueprints on EPCOT. The vision for EPCOT was simple to Walt, it would be a place where people could work, dream and play. Walt was known for being ahead of his times, but I think he might be even ahead of our times as well with this concept. The lifestyle was set as laid back and relaxed, but also playful, fun and creative, He gave off this vibe with the design of the city.


(Epcot map (right))

The city is designed like a wheel, with the middle being the main tourist attraction of the big hotel travelers would stay in. Around this we now get in to to the urban plan. This is where all the work places would be and the shops.


Then as we go further down we get in to the residential area with a complete suburban lifestyle, promised to be accessible to everyone. Here we have residential housing and recreation such as schools, parks (amusement and non) and churches.

Then we move further down to the industrial area. Not a lot of plans were showcased here since Walt died before he could finish.


Throughout the city ran people movers, a new mode of transportation while all gassed powered vehicles were stored and ran underground. The people movers were above ground so pedestrians were free to walk anywhere without fear of automobiles.

(people movers)

Unfortunately, the plan was never followed through on as Walt was an avid smoker and died of lung cancer shortly after the Epcot film was shot. Epcot was turned into a dream park and is what it is today.

(Walt Disney)

Everytime I think of this plan I smile. It fills my heart with so much joy the feeling of being in Epcot. I am also  sad that this wonderful dream was never followed through on after he passed. Walt Disney has definitely challenged the way I think about cities, and how they can be more than just places we live, they can become places that sparks joy. What if we could do this with LeBreton Flats? What if the area can be a place of our wildest dreams, our deepest desires. What if we, a bunch of dedicated youth, come together and finish the project that Walt started here in Ottawa? Like Walt said, “All our dreams can come true, as long as we have the courage to pursue them.” So what do you think Ottawa, do we?


LeBreton Flats Team at Ottawa U! From left to right: Chrystia (Partner, Ottawa U), Madison (Blue Sky school), Carson (Blue Sky school), Will (Blue Sky school), Grace (ME), Evin on computer (Partner, Belouga), Midia (Mentor), Shauna (project manager)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought and Emotions are like Snowballs by Bella

-
Image
Thoughts and emotions are like snowballs; if you don’t stop them from rolling down a hill, they get bigger. If you’re upset, but you don’t find the cause or solution, and leave it lingering instead, then it will keep getting bigger and bigger until it smacks you in the face, hard. However, if you stop the snowball, you can stop the negative emotion or thought. But snowballs aren’t all bad. Sometimes they can be good, like when you’re with a really good friend, and you tell an inside joke and you both start laughing. You’re bouncing off of each other’s energy and happiness, and you can’t stop laughing. That’s also the snowball effect.   It might be hard at first, but one way to control your thoughts and emotions is by trying to become more self-aware of them. To really try to identify why you’re feeling a certain way, and really be in the mindset of ‘Okay, so I’m feeling this way, why am I feeling like this?’ Once you’ve answered that, you can move on to asking yourself ‘What...
Read more

How It Feels to Be the “Bad Kid” By Michael

-
In grade 2, I started getting in trouble all the time because I didn’t really like school. I thought there were more fun things to do, so I did them. I got in trouble for that. The teacher was making the kids do normal school stuff like writing, math, French and reading. I would talk when I wasn’t supposed to or just play around at my desk instead of working. When someone would find me doing those things, they would send me to the hall. I would play hockey with a pencil and paper ball. That was better than being in the classroom. I would always stay outside longer than I was supposed at recess to and hide in my locker instead of going to class. Then, either my teacher or another teacher would see me. They would assume that I was just misbehaving. Really, I didn’t want to go into the class and do my work. I didn’t think I could do a good job at it. I felt bad about myself. They would say, “Go to the office.” I told myself I didn’t really care. Everyone started thinking I was ...
Read more

How Does My Brain Work? by Léo

-
Image
My skill is my brain. The brain is working on my writing thoughts down and working draft. The next thought I am working on group workshops my brain keeps it for doing mindfulness which it gives me. It has been a week giving more focused on department on my skills that I do. I worked with pressure with my skills activities and mindfulness it has a great day to do my department of my numery. It has a great attention on focusing on my work and a great tech use at school. When I use tech it’s for working stuffs and not during lunch. My brain has energy for working at brain boost break. The next thing that I do is giving me more work that I do is working on my topic skills it has a great work that I do in my whole life I really like is working more skills. I do my brainstorm work on my skills that works for me. I love doing hard work on my skill writing. I do IXL work on my math work that I do on grade 1 to grade 12 which is C stands for Calculus. I do typing games on my lesson with lett...
Read more