WDW 1969: How to Build Resort Hotels

The 1,450 steel framed unitized rooms for both hotels would be built off-site as modular structures then slipped into the framework on site. The goal was to reduce the weight of each room thereby, reducing the amount of steel necessary to build the structures. A typical room weighed 30-tons while this new process would cut that weight to only 6 tons. The project was meant to be a demonstration of new technologies in keeping with the original spirit of the E.P.C.O.T. project. Each unit was so strong, three could be stacked on top of one another without any additional support. Welton Becket & Associates was hired as architect. There were other hotels also mentioned in early press releases including the Asian, Venetian, and Persin motifs.