SUNY Albany, or Edward Durell Stone built an EPCOT

State University of New York at Albany.

Great minds think alike. I have been an avid Disney fan for over a decade now, so I have immersed myself in much of the lore, including Walt Disney's plans for a city of tomorrow, the original EPCOT. While touring Edward Durell Stone's State University of New York at Albany (aka SUNY Albany or University at Albany), I had this odd sensation it was all eerily familiar. Not just because Stone designed many similarly-looking buildings, but because I kept being reminded of Disney's fabled city. Two massive building projects, one dreamed, one built, but both thought up in the same couple of years. While they do have their differences, I wanted to explore the similarities between Walt Disney's EPCOT and Edward Durell Stone's University at Albany.


Visionary movie producer and theme park creator Walt Disney had plans to build the future. After secretly buying thousands of acres of land in Florida in the 1960's, he publicly announced his plans to build a new complex. Along with a Florida theme park, Disney proposed an Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow, or in short, EPCOT. This would be a testing ground for new kinds of city living. New technologies would be tried out in a planned, controlled environment, meant to make the lives of its citizens better. If an experimental technology proved successful in EPCOT, then it could be deployed to regular cities around the world, benefiting everyone. A great, big, beautiful tomorrow was just a dream away.

A radial city design was chosen upon. In the center would be a skyscraper hotel and convention center, the city's "weenie" (Weenie is a Disney term for a visual icon that draws people towards it, like Sleeping Beauty Castle or Spaceship Earth). The central skyscraper would sit on top of an urban center that contained shopping, pleasantly-arranged office high-rises, and a transportation hub. Hugging the urban center would be high-density housing complexes. Surrounding that would be a greenbelt. The greenbelt, while having plenty of green space and ponds, would also have athletic fields/stadiums, schools, churches, and space for outdoor fairs/events. Beyond the belt was the last ring around the city, low-density residential areas. This final area could be expanded farther out as needed.

Transportation would make up the backbone of this city. Cars and service vehicles (undesirable elements) would be relegated to underground tunnels and perimeter roads surrounding the city. Residents would use different paths that would be open to electric carts, bicycles, or walking. To reach further areas of the city, residents could ride the PeopleMover (continuously-moving, automated transit trains) on elevated rails. From the urban center, PeopleMover tracks would reach all the way out to the low-density residential areas. Monorails would also factor into the design, linking the city with other areas across the Disney property.

After Disney's death in 1966, Disney's heirs tried to live up to the grand plan as best as they could. While creating a literal city was off the table, the Disney Company instead infused many of the city's ideas into the Florida property. The Magic Kingdom was built over tunnels that hid utilities, service areas, and employee transportation around the park. Many utility systems across the property were state-of-the-art and/or experimental when built. Monorails were the flagship transportation system for the property, and the PeopleMover made an appearance as a park attraction in The Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland. The 1983 EPCOT Center theme park (now named Epcot) was built to be closer to a permanent World's Fair than a living city. It originally showcased future technologies and different cultural communities from around the world, all through the magic of edutainment. The Disney Company would eventually create an unicorporated town named Celebration. Celebration proposed some new ideas for better ways of living, but had more in common with a livable theme park than EPCOT. The Disney Company will probably never create Walt Disney's EPCOT.


Now, let's pivot. While Walt Disney was planning out EPCOT, acclaimed architect Edward Durell Stone was building one. We could call it an Experimental Prototype College of Tomorrow, or in short, the University at Albany.

The University at Albany campus had been situated in downtown Albany. Thanks to increased enrollment, it was looking to expand itself to accommodate more students. Unfortunately, the campus was completely landlocked in its downtown area. A former golf course outside of the crowded downtown was chosen as the site of the university's new uptown campus location. Edward Durell Stone was tasked with designing it. With virtually a blank slate, he could build his idea of the perfect college campus.

Ground was broken in August of 1962. 13 academic buildings and 36 dormitories were built to accommodate up to 7,500 students. The academic buildings would all share the same foundation, an elevated platform called the Academic Podium. For the fall semester of 1964, some students were able to live in recently-completed dormitories. However, it would be 2 more years before the uptown campus started holding classes, and 3 more after that before the campus was finally finished.  The project stayed on schedule and under budget. Because Stone was building a complete college campus all at once, the college had a unified look and layout. It was an urban planning feat on many levels.


As I said earlier, both the Albany and EPCOT projects share many similarities. Even though Albany is set up as a rectangle instead of as a circle, it still features specialized rings like EPCOT. In the center of the campus is a courtyard with a fountain and a 251-foot pillar, the weenie of campus. The inner ring of buildings surrounding the courtyard are all focused on campus community and culture: the Library, the Campus Center, and the Performing Arts Center. The next ring, which follows along the perimeter of the Podium, focuses on classrooms and department offices. Once past the Academic Podium are four dormitory quads, each one by the Podium's corners. Around and beyond the quads is campus's own "green belt," including athletic fields, parking, and open fields and forests.

Public transportation was not a huge factor of the Albany campus. Stone, however, shared Disney's disdain for cars. Shortly after the campus opened, Stone told a student interviewer, "Nothing is more fatal to architecture than to have buildings located in a parking lot." The University at Albany would be a walking campus. Parking was relegated to the edges of campus. In creating the Academic Podium, Stone also created service tunnels underneath the main thoroughfares, like those that were planned for EPCOT. This was so auxiliary service functions could still take place.

Both projects have a minor focus on green spaces. One cannot simply build urban expanses -- there needs to be a balance of nature and the constructed environment. EPCOT had its greenbelt, with "a broad expanse of beautiful lawns and walks and trees" (EPCOT film transcript, The Original E.P.C.O.T). Trees and shrubs were also drawn throughout the concept art of EPCOT's shopping areas. At the Albany campus, Stone scattered planters and green courtyards throughout the Academic Podium. Off the Podium, there were plenty of trees and green spaces. SUNY Albany's landscape was designed by architects Clarke & Rapuano.

Aerial Photograph of the University at Albany in a hallway
at the University at Albany.

Even looking beyond what was built, there are many similarities between Disney's city of tomorrow and colleges in general. College is a training ground for the mind, experimenting with new and thought-provoking ideas. It helps grow students into the thinkers and dreamers of tomorrow, which they could then theoretically shape the world around them for the better. Disney's marketing focus for EPCOT was on being a training ground for technologies, but that isn't to say EPCOT would be limited to only one outlet for finding a better tomorrow.

Another similar aspect of EPCOT and colleges is the control. For EPCOT, Walt Disney wanted absolute control over everything. He successfully had the State of Florida give him municipal jurisdiction over his land (something Walt Disney World still benefits from today). He also wanted all the citizens to rent, so no one would own the property. By not owning property, they couldn't vote on changes in the city. Disney would be free to switch out technology in homes as he pleased. Colleges can also exert this force. Students rent dorm rooms, and don't outright have a say in college operations. It is at the will and discretion of the college administration for how much impact a student government can have. This is why some colleges have dry campuses or impose curfews. At the end of the day, a college/Disney has the final say.

There are still differences in the plans. EPCOT was planned to be much larger than SUNY Albany. EPCOT was envisioned to have 20,000 residents, while Albany was designed for 7,500 students. While Albany can get away with not having transportation systems, EPCOT's size alone necessitated it. EPCOT was also going to have many differing architectural styles. While a majority of EPCOT's buildings would use then-contemporary styles, the indoor shopping area below the hotel would use older ones. Called the International Shopping Center, every section would be themed to a different locale around the globe (This grew from the idea of adding an International Street at Disneyland, and later manifested as World Showcase at EPCOT Center). At Albany, Edward Durell Stone had his signature style, and all of the original campus followed this one aesthetic.


Both Disney and Stone had plenty of urban planning experience and knowledge. Edward Durell Stone was a studied architect and had years of experience. He also had a natural knack for layout and finding a simple solution to complex spacial requirements. By the time he designed the Albany campus, he had designed a couple hospitals, hotels, and college master plans. For Disney, Disneyland was praised by urban planner James W. Rouse as the "greatest piece of urban design in the United States." The Disney Company thought so as well; to date, they have copied and adapted the original park's design for five other theme parks around the world. Once Walt Disney came up with the idea for EPCOT, he did a lot more research into urban planning before he reached the plan we know today. I think the fact that these plans are so similar, it does give Disney a lot of credit for his urban planning talents.

I don't believe these men had much interaction together, if any. I can't seem to find any mention on the internet of any Disney/Stone connection. For the 1958 World's Fair, the Disney attraction Circarama was part of the United States pavilion. The pavilion complex was designed by Stone, so it is very likely they exchanged correspondences. Any possible evidence of interaction would probably exist in either the Disney Archives and the University of Arkansas' Edward Durell Stone papers.


I'd like to conclude. Walt Disney and Edward Durell Stone were brilliant men of their time, and did amazing things in their fields. Many people bemoan that Disney's city of tomorrow never got to see today, but I believe a close-cousin version of it was built just up the road in Upstate New York.

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Postscript: A Review of SUNY Albany

Courtyard view from the Futterer Lounge in the
Performing Arts Center.

[Full Disclosure: I am a current employee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Any opinions expressed below about the Kennedy Center are my own personal views and do not represent that of the Center, its management, or its staff.]

This campus. Wow.

It is so huge. The Academic Podium is 580 feet wide and 1,540 feet long (To compare, the podium that the Kennedy Center sits upon is around 690 feet long). I thought the Kennedy Center's colonnade was long -- Albany's go on forever. And that's not all, this entire campus covers 360 acres. It's sprawling! This is not a campus for those who hate exercise.

Looking down from one end of the colonnade
to the other at SUNY Albany.

I see this as a visually stunning campus featuring a great layout, but the logistics and the realities the design faces undermine it.

It is amazing to stand in the central courtyard and be surrounded by the Stone aesthetic. It's a lovely feeling that everything goes together. Not many architects get to shape a whole environment of buildings. The repetition of elements becomes a strong architectural statement.

That all being said, wayfinding is difficult when everything looks the same. To help people out, maps and signs are posted everywhere. This ultimately leads to a cluttered look. It's frustrating to see buildings age in this manner. I feel if architects want to control this better, they either have to make their layouts ridiculously simple, or build in more wayfinding tools/directional signage. Stone did have some wayfinding built in, but it needed more. A college where everything looks the same is inherently going to need more wayfinding tools than a college that has architecturally-diverse buildings.

Stone made the Academic Podium have covered paths so that students could walk outside in any type of weather. Nevertheless, New York winters can be brutal even without precipitation. You still have freezing temperatures and wind (which the colonnades are known to enhance). The utility tunnels,  envisioned exclusively for service vehicle use, are now also used as pedestrian walkways. It feels like there was some misunderstanding of the local weather when the complex was being designed. It's a great campus, but this design would have been better if built somewhere warmer. While there are enclosed pedestrian-only paths built into the design, more of them would have improved campus usability in the winter months. This would have also ensured that the utility tunnels could remain exclusively auxiliary.

Utility tunnel at University at Albany. Big pipes!
The pedestrian path is on the right-hand side,
denoted by the yellow line.

Maintenance across the Podium varies. The more important locations are better taken care of than the off-the-beaten-path walkways and quads. This is even more apparent because everything looks the same. If one section's quality of care is at a lower level than others, it will stand out.

Landscaping also has struggling patches. I have found at a lot of places I have visited, landscape maintenance is seen as an afterthought, or is piecemeal. I believe that this is an incorrect way of thinking. Landscaping is just as integral to the experience as the building is. Modernist and Brutalist buildings don't always look good standing on their own. A little greenery can break up the starkness. It can make a place feel more alive. I think Albany should invest in a landscaping master plan.

Even if there are new plantings here, can anyone explain the
placements of the larger plants and rocks in this planter?

The two large courtyards on either end of the Podium, however, were well planted. I was especially surprised and delighted looking down one colonnade and seeing what looked like the edge of a forest growing inside the Podium.

Look at that forest! (I took a lot of shots down
the colonnades.)

Looking into a lush courtyard

I wrote earlier how I enjoyed campus's architectural cohesiveness. This does not include almost all of the expansions touching the Academic Podium and in close proximity to it. They stick out like sore thumbs. They either vaguely try to be similar to the original design, or do whatever they want. For such a highly-stylized campus that started with such a strong architectural identity, why would you add something that doesn't go along with the rest? It takes away some of that power. 

Colleges, heed my words. You don't always need that new contemporary architectural style on campus. If your campus already has amazing architectural cohesion, fight against the temptation for that different style. It will all be worth it!

The one slight exception I found for an expansion was University Hall. This administration building, built in 2006, is right next to the main entranceway to the Podium. It is this wavy-mirror structure that is set on an angle from the Podium. It is intentionally not fitting in with Stone's design, while reflecting his design in its glass. I can grudgingly appreciate that. My only wish is that the building on the other side of the entranceway mirrored University Hall. Instead, the Massry Center for Business was built in 2013 with a different look. 

University Hall (Left), Stone's SUNY Albany (Center),
and the Massry Center for Business (Right). I barely took
any shots of the expansions, I was not having it.

I have a lot of strong criticisms for this campus, but I don't want that to bury the fact that it is beautiful and I did enjoy walking around it.

Stone's style is on full display here. There are overhanging eaves with cut-outs everywhere. Hanging circular planters are present, but serve more as lighting than for holding plants. I even found some metal grillework in the central courtyard with a decorative pattern!

Fun grillework cover!

The columns are always the main stars here. Again, I really like that melting column look at the top. When there are rows of columns running parallel to each other, it creates this modern Gothic/Islamic architecture vibe.

Columns melting into the entranceway's ceiling

Another opportunity to give you a
looking-down-the-colonnade shot,
featuring the ceiling.

I have never seen anything like the columns in the library. One part melting column, one part sunburst light. They're a little strange, but I really like them. They seem like a maintenance nightmare, plenty of individual strands were out. It was a challenge to find a completely lit column to photograph.

Loved this aisle

Example of a column with unlit strands

Rare shot of two columns next to each other
all lit up

Sunburst Columns everywhere! It's really lovely.

The main fountain in the central courtyard is of note. It is a lovely, relaxing oasis on campus. The day I visited was very hot, so other people were sticking their feet in the water to cool down. The fountain was renovated 2012-2014, with a new jet design and walkway bisecting the pool. The renovation was designed by Stone Architects, LLC, led by Hicks Stone, Edward Durell Stone's son. Its use of angled lines give off its younger age, but it does very much fit in with the original design.

Central Fountain

I liked the boxed trees along the perimeter of the Podium. They reminded me of the ones that used to surround the Kennedy Center.

Boxed trees!

The Performing Arts Center was closed when I visited, so I have no comments on those spaces.

The 251-foot pillar in the central courtyard is actually a water storage tank with a carillon on top. It was awarded "Steel Tank of the Year" in 1968 by the Steel Plate Fabricators Association for being utilitarian and beautiful!

The prettiest water tower

I visited one of the four dormitory quads, the Colonial Quad. The quads are two stories tall (as opposed to the Academic Podium structures being three stories tall). In each of their courtyards is a 22-story dormitory tower.

A corner entrance to Colonial Quad.
The paint on those columns is ROUGH.

The two-story dorms match the style of the Podium. The towers are very bare & unadorned, which is unfortunately par for the course of Edward Durell Stone tower structures. They copy the wall façade used throughout SUNY Albany. Did not get to go inside any of the dorms, but peering through a window, the rooms look pretty college-standard to me.

Base of the tower. Accessibility is addressed through long
& short-term solutions. Being added in retroactively, the
ramps do not blend in well with the original design.

Corner Dorm Room

It's hard to find a bad angle here. Campus is really photogenic.

Corner of the Academic Podium

Looking at the entrance to SUNY Albany, featuring
post-Stone water features

My final thoughts: Visit the University at Albany during the summer when everything is green and the fountains are on. Wear comfortable footwear to walk in. Soak in the Stone aesthetic while dipping your feet in the central fountain. You don't need to look at the expansions, you don't need to enroll/live there. Just get lost in the Academic Podium, and enjoy this architectural gem.

Central Courtyard Fountain

Sources Used:
Since the World Began by Jeff Kurtti
Realityland: True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World by Dave Koenig
The Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World by Alex Wright & The Imagineers
"There's A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" by the Sherman Brothers.
The Original E.P.C.O.T
University at Albany SUNY Campus Heritage Preservation Plan (465 pages, I love it)
Edward Durell Stone: A Son's Untold Story of a Legendary Architect by Hicks Stone
"Edward Durell Stone" UAlbany sign in the main courtyard
Campus Update: University Hall Opens
Cutting-Edge University at Albany School of Business Building
Google Earth, Kennedy Center
The Millennium Stage: What if... 1971?


Fun Additional Readings/Listenings:
Was the Campus of the University of [sic] Albany Originally Designed to be Used in Arizona?
Disney History Institute: Disney vs. Russia Part 1 [focus on Disney at the 1958 Brussels's World Fair]
Disney History Institute: Disney vs Russia Part 2 [focus on Disney at the 1958 Brussels's World Fair]