An Auto Epcot for Downtown Detroit?

[Pam]

I don't see the need. The Detroit Historical Museum has an auto section and so does the Henry Ford Museum.

[Honky Tonk]

I don't see the need. The Detroit Historical Museum has an auto section and so does the Henry Ford Museum.

Maybe we could resurect the Don Bardon/Michael Jackson amusement park idea on the riverfront?

[401don]

Maybe we could resurect the Don Bardon/Michael Jackson amusement park idea on the riverfront?

No good. Who wants to drive with one racing glove?

[kenp]

The problem with Autoworld was it was BORING.
We can barely keep a Science Center open, I dont see this being needed or much of an attraction

[canuck]

Disney has recently added a cars land to its California Park. Might be able to gleam some ideas from there. http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disn...ure/cars-land/

Detroit Works will want the park to be in an area that has little population. You could do things such as incorporate large retention ponds that would take a ton of the load off of the sewer system [[save the City $100's of millions of capital and operating cost of treatment). It would be best to put this as close to transportation [[highways, transit) as possible. Building it near downtown would be a mistake, all I hear about from this forum is increasing density and 'street curtain wall'. Well this would do nothing for either.

There are no successful theme parks in downtowns. These require huge areas of land. Disneyland is about as close as they get.

I dunno, there is an amusement park, not a theme park per se that is very close to downtown Montreal; La Ronde. The city operated it for many years since Expo 67, and then sold it to 6Flags. It is very successful, they keep adding on new rides every coupla years. It is on St Helen's island midway under a bridge. There is also a subway station that stops there on a path to the south shore. It is a lot like Belle Isle, just slightly east of downtown. The rest of the island is dedicated to a major city park and some remnants of the Expo site are still around. The most important one being the Buckminster Fuller designed US pavilion [[the biosphere) which is now an environment themed museum. There is a history museum also on the island inside an old british military arsenal, the Stewart museum.

[iheartthed]

There's plenty of surface parking lots on the eastside of Downtown, not to mention Gilbert's acquiring of Greektown Casino & Hotel. There's plenty of land from Ford Field to Greektown, even down to the Monroe block. It's possible

I know that I just don't think it's the best use of space for that area.

[DetroitPlanner]

I dunno, there is an amusement park, not a theme park per se that is very close to downtown Montreal; La Ronde. The city operated it for many years since Expo 67, and then sold it to 6Flags. It is very successful, they keep adding on new rides every coupla years. It is on St Helen's island midway under a bridge. There is also a subway station that stops there on a path to the south shore. It is a lot like Belle Isle, just slightly east of downtown. The rest of the island is dedicated to a major city park and some remnants of the Expo site are still around. The most important one being the Buckminster Fuller designed US pavilion [[the biosphere) which is now an environment themed museum. There is a history museum also on the island inside an old british military arsenal, the Stewart museum.

Being on an island that has more in common with somewhere like Boblo, Ontario Place, or Centreville. It is interesting that it does have a couple of Metro Stops though!

Maybe we can build ours on Boblo? I agree with the person who mentioned that Autoworld's rides stunk. They had a couple of well done yet boring dark rides. What we would need would be something like Epcot's Test Track or what Disney's CA Adventure has with the racing cars.

[401don]

If there was enough space, I think ideally some sort of test track/interactive driving experience should be added to the Henry Ford instead. Ideally a few attractions for different age groups that were educational [[powertrains, environment, etc.) as well as fun. As impressive as the museum is, it's still a little boring for the video game generation, especially if you want your family to make repeat visits. It would be great if there was something to make kids go home and brag to their friends so more families would visit.

[Richard]

Old thread but it is a bit amusing using automobile and Epcot in the same sentence.

Walt Disney who was a visionary,original version of Epcot was a car less domed city where you stepped out of your front door onto a tram to be whisked off to work,shop and play,little details like trash was deposited onto a conveyor and taken away to the dump ,no need for pick up.

The Epcot as we know it today only holds the dome compared to the original intent.