Disney Engineers Voyage to the Deep

by Philip Gatsoulis, Vice Pres. and Discipline Dir. of Struct. Engrg.; James M. Montgomery Engrs., 250 N. Madison Ave., Pasadena, CA 91109,
Mark E. Fordham, Proj. Struct. Engr.; James M. Montgomery Engrs., 250 N. Madison Ave., Pasadena, CA 91109,
Paul E. Cooley, Prof. Engr.; James M. Montgomery Engrs., 250 N. Madison Ave., Pasadena, CA 91109,


Serial Information: Civil Engineering—ASCE, 1986, Vol. 56, Issue 3, Pg. 50-53


Document Type: Feature article

Abstract:

The main show at the Living Seas Pavilion, part of Walt Disney Production's EPCOT Center, Lake Buena Vista, Fla., is a visit to a tropical coral reef deep under the ocean. To develop an illusion worthy of the Disney reputation, Walt Disney Imagineering and James M. Montgomery Engineers had to create the world's largest aquarium and the first man-made life support system compatible to salt water fish and marine mammals. The simulated journey into the ocean is actually a ride through submerged concrete and acrylic tunnels and a circular module within a 197 ft diameter, 28 ft deep reinforced concrete tank of seawater. The complex includes a number of other exhibition and isolation tanks as well. Fish in the entire complex are kept alive by a specially designed life support system capable of treating the water for a city of 600,000.

Subject Headings: Reinforced concrete | Space life support systems | Salt water | Ocean engineering | Fish and fishery management | Water treatment | Urban areas

Services: Buy this book/Buy this article

 

Return to search