From Our Archives: Walt Disney World Wins ULI’s 1981 Award of Excellence

Urban Land Magazine, January 1982

The third annual Urban Land Institute Award for Excellence for Excellence was presented to Walt Disney World/Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID) at ULI’s November meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Walt Disney World/RCID is a mixed-use development project located in central Florida, approximately 15 miles southwest of Orlando. RCOD is comprised of 28,000 acres of land and water, thwo thirds in orange County and one-third in Osceola County. The cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista are located within the RCID. The district was formed in 1967 in order to provide mandatory flexibility to meet special zoning and building codes and to provide services normally under governmental jurisdiction for this special land use project.

The 28,000-acre, eight million dollar project is owned by WED Enterprises, Inc. In its entirety, theproject consists of an amusement park, vacation resort, planned city, and conservation area interconnected by a mass transit system and infrastructure servicing above ground activities. Construction began on Phase 1, a vacation resort complex representing 10 percent of the total area in 1968 and it opened in October 1, 1971. Phase II, a planned model city known as EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow), and is scheduled to open in October 1982.

Urban Land, January, 1982

The entire project includes seven resort hotels with a combined total of 3,400 rooms, a resort community with a total of 257 lodging units, a 100,000-square-foot office building with banking facilities, a 150,000 square-foot shopping village, a hospital, and a visitors center. Presently under construction are a conference center, including 144 lodging units and an 18,000 square-foot-facility for meetings and banquets, and the EPCOT Center, which will cover approximately 600 acres, including guest parking and service support facilities.

Urban Land magazine, January 1982

In making the presentation to Ronald Miller, President and Chief Operating Officer of Walt Disney Productions, Benjamin Lake, Chairman of the 1981 Award Jury and President of Lake Associates, cited the RCID as a master planning effort unmatched in its scale which will have a great impact for all members of the development industry as an influential research tool and project model. The basis for the jury’s final selection of Walt Disney World/RCID was in recognition of “their sophisticated utilization of resources, innovative planning and construction techniques, beneficial impact on surrounding communities, and demonstration of the practical application of superior ingenuity.”

—Excerpted from the January 1982 issue of Urban Land.