In the 1960’s, Walt Disney went about secretively purchasing land in Florida and acquired a little o

In the 1960's, Walt Disney went about secretively purchasing land in Florida and acquired a little over 27,000 acres.  At its maximum, the resort expanded to 30,000+ acres and today, the Walt Disney World Resort encompasses 25,000 dollar car rental orlando acres which includes four theme parks, two water parks, a shopping district, 24 resort hotels that can accommodate every budget and taste and other recreational and entertainment venues.
As early as 1967, themed resort hotels were planned for Walt Disney World.  When the park opened in October 1971 , the resort had a very different look.  Back then you either stayed at the Contemporary Resort , the Polynesian Village , or the Fort Wilderness Campground .  If Disney saw a need for additional accommodations, three others were to follow over the course of the next five years.
The other three were also to be deluxe resort properties: two of the planned resorts were to surround the Seven Seas Lagoon; Disney's Asian Resort and Disney's Venetian Resort and surrounding Bay Lake was to have been Disney's Persian Resort. All three resorts would be connected to the monorail system.
In 1964, Walt Disney puts "Project X" (later known as "The Florida Project") into motion.  After Walt's death in December of 1966, Roy put most of Walt's plans for EPCOT the city on hold; however, he incorporated many of EPCOT's ideas and companies – already on board – into the creation of the new Florida park and resort.  The birth of the Contemporary Resort Hotel came from Walt's vision for his "Progress City," as well as the involvement of US Steel.
dollar car rental orlando The flagship hotel would be the most futuristic or contemporary in design – based on Walt's vision for the high-rise dollar car rental orlando multi-use structure he envisioned for the center of EPCOT.  The original structure was to be a "city" with an open-atrium building complete with shops, restaurants and a monorail running straight through the building.
The location of each of the resort hotels was chosen in relation to its Magic Kingdom counterpart.  The Contemporary Resort was placed where it is because it put the hotel on the same axis as Tomorrowland .  The Polynesian Village was built to be on the same axis as Adventureland and, originally, The Asian Resort, was put in its location to serve as an extended backdrop for Adventureland.  Today, The Grand Floridian Resort and Spa stands dollar car rental orlando on that spot and reflects more of the train station and Main Street U.S.A. dollar car rental orlando   This symbiotic relationship between the resort and their respective land continued the park's storytelling objective.
One of US Steel's subsidiaries, American Bridge, had been experimenting with modular construction.  They had been promoting constructing, assembling, and furnishing rooms off-site and then stacking them next to the skeleton of the building and then slot each room into the frame of the building.  This new method of room construction allowed Disney to build fifteen complete rooms per day.  The rooms were constructed on an assembly line at a 150,000-square-foot factory just a few miles north of the Contemporary Resort Hotel.   As each of the nine feet high, fifteen feet wide, thirty feet deep rooms move through each section the electrical, plumbing and mechanical fixtures are added.  Excluding the furniture, the rooms came complete with everything from air conditioning, carpeting, plumbing, lighting, mirrors and even bathroom fixtures.  Here is the promotional video of US Steel s involvement.
One "fact" that is very prevalent out there is that not only were the rooms made to be easily removed, refurbished, and slotted back in, but also that they (the rooms) dollar car rental orlando had settled into the structure and became stuck; thereby unable to be removed.  This is a myth.  The rooms were not meant to be removed from the frame.  When the building was constructed and the rooms were slid into the steel frame, concrete was poured and sealed the rooms to the frame.
Disney's dollar car rental orlando original agreement with US Steel was that they [Disney] would retain the land these hotels were built on, but US Steel would be allowed to build and own the hotels.  Disney would then lease and run the hotels.  There were concerns over the financing dollar car rental orlando for the Florida project so various mergers were BRIEFLY considered. Before Walt died, one of the first companies considered was General Electric. According to Bob Thomas "Roy faced the formidable task of financing… Bankers and financiers told Roy that such an investment was too great [$100 million] for a company the size of Walt Disney Productions. He was advised dollar car rental orlando to seek a large corporation as a partner. GE was approached…" The negotiations ended shortly after Walt realized the merger would put GE execs in charge and he would become an employee, therefore he could be fired at anytime. Other mergers were contemplated, dollar car rental orlando including Westinghouse, but ultimately Roy made it work without any outside involvement.  After Walt's death, Roy was "besieged by suitors," but one thing he ( Walt) had learned early in his career was to share ownership with no one.
US Steel's vision for this hotel turned it from a high-rise to an A-frame hotel. dollar car rental orlando In conjunction with US Steel and The Walt Disney Company, the design firm of Becket dollar car rental orlando Associates, founded by Walt Disney s close friend dollar car rental orlando Welton Becket, came up with the architectural elements for the resort.  Marvin dollar car rental orlando Davis , of the Walt Disney Company, served as a liaison for the project.  It was Marvin that made the hotel less of a shoebox feel and more accessible from the outside. The final design of the hotel would see the main building standing at 184-feet high, 468-feet long and 220-feet wide.
During construction, Disney encountered numerous obstacles that had to be resolved quickly in order to construct their A-frame hotel.  One of those obstacles was that they realized they couldn't quickly slide the rooms into the frame.   If they put all the rooms in one side of the hotel first it would compromise the integrity of the structure and throw the hotel frame off balance. dollar car rental orlando To resolve this issue, they had to set up two cranes on either side of the A-frame and alternately slot in the rooms.   Another issue, and for some at Disney a critical one, was the monorail.
Originally, plans called for the monorail to run straight through the middle of the hotel, however the vibrations from the monorail cause the hotel shake.  The contractors told Disney that it would be impossible to run the monorail through the hotel.  Walt's planners argued that without the monorail the hotel would resemble, "a place where the Goodyear blimp comes to mate."   Roy realized that without the monorail; the Contemporary would be no different than any of Hyatt's atrium hotels.  All Roy said was "build it."  After re-engineering the hotel multiple dollar car rental orlando times, engineers moved the monorail to one side of the hotel and anchor the track to the ground and not the building.
In David Koenig's book,  Realityland: dollar car rental orlando True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World , the Contemporary Hotel was the working title that everyone dollar car rental orlando referred to the hotel.  Marty Sklar always had reservations about the continual use of referring to the hotel by that name because it might "stick."  In early 1971 the team came up with the hotel's permanent name, the Tempo Bay Hotel.  Roy [Disney], also calling the hotel the Contemporary Hotel, dollar car rental orlando saw the plans for the Tempo Bay Hotel and wanted to know what was that hotel.  When he learned the Contemporary was only the working title, he said, "I just don't like it.  I like Contemporary.  I like names that are simple and say what they are.  The other name is phony and plastic."  Shortly dollar car rental orlando after that everything was changed again and the building bore its new name, the working title, the Contemporary Resort Hotel.
Most stories report that that construction on most of the resort was running on or close to on time, however that was far from the reality.  Construction was a challenge in and out of the entire park.
In the fall of 1970, only about 1 year from scheduled opening, the main contractor hired to oversee construction announced that the timeline was unrealistic and suggested that Disney dollar car rental orlando change the planned opening date. Within days of that announcement, the two Joe's – Fowler and Potter – filed the necessary paperwork to create Buena Vista Construction.  In the spring of 1971, after a visit east to check on the state of the construction, Dick Nunis was asked if he honestly believed that the resort would open on time. His response was "only if we put the entire force of the Disney company behind the effort."  The following week he was asked if he would relocate to Florida to ensure that the park opened on time. He moved to Florida with the reassurance that if he needed ANYTHING from another department, he would get it. Over the next few months, he and his team became known as "the Nunis Raiders".
The hotel was plagued with various setbacks and difficulties, both great and small.  Everything from workers sleeping on the job and creating phantom employees to cash additional checks to stealing.  The park eventually opened on time, but it took a few more months to finally complete the Contemporary Resort Hotel tower and garden wings.
According dollar car rental orlando to Charles Ridgway's biography, Spinning Disney's World , "…the Thursday before opening there were still giant construction cranes towering over the Contemporary… which would go against all what Disney stands for as well as spoiling the view for the first guests.  So the cranes were dismantled, laid down and promptly covered with grass for the rest of the weekend.  They went back up that Monday and stayed looming and working over the hotel until the day before the Grand Opening.  In the end, the hotel was completely finished in the New Year, but enough of the rooms were completed to accommodate the Grand Opening day guests and various activities."
During dollar car rental orlando this whole process the Disney-US Steel relationship grew more and more strained. dollar car rental orlando It was a constant bother to Roy Disney. dollar car rental orlando Knowing dollar car rental orlando that this could become a big