After exiting Journey Into Imagination, guests entered a realm where creativity wasn’t just encouraged—it was interactive. The original ImageWorks, located upstairs in the glass pyramids of EPCOT’s Imagination Pavilion, was a playground for the senses. It wasn’t just a post-show—it was a destination in its own right.
Inside, guests could:
- Walk through the Sensor Tunnel, affectionately known as the Rainbow Tunnel, where colored light followed your every move
- Use magical paintbrushes to create digital art on glowing screens
- Manipulate sound and light in exhibits like Stepping Tones, Dreamfinder’s School of Drama, and Figment’s Coloring Book
- Explore a world where imagination was tactile, visual, and deeply personal
The upstairs ImageWorks was designed to complement the original ride’s themes—each exhibit echoing the creative domains explored by Dreamfinder and Figment. The space was open, airy, and filled with natural light from the glass pyramids above, making it feel like a futuristic art studio floating in the sky.
But in 1998, as part of the pavilion’s controversial refurbishment, the original ImageWorks was closed. The ride below was gutted and reimagined, and the upstairs space was quietly abandoned. No demolition. No repurposing. Just silence. The exhibits were left in place, and the stairs leading up to the area—now located inside the gift shop—were simply roped off. The elevator was disabled. Guests walked past the entrance daily, unaware that just above them, the original ImageWorks still sat—collecting dust, crumbling, and frozen in time.
In January 2016, Disney announced that the space would be refurbished into a Disney Vacation Club Member Lounge. The new lounge opened a few months later, occupying part of the upstairs footprint. However, large portions of the original ImageWorks remained untouched—sealed behind walls, hidden from view, but still very much there.
In 2018, our friends at Back Door Disney shared a haunting video tour of the abandoned space. The footage revealed:
- The Rainbow Tunnel, still intact but dark and silent
- Exhibit stations, unplugged and covered in dust
- Figment-themed signage, faded but recognizable
- A space that once buzzed with creativity, now eerily quiet
For those who grew up with the original ImageWorks, the video was a gut punch—a reminder of what was lost, and what still lingers just out of reach. The fact that the space was never fully removed, never fully repurposed, makes its absence feel even more profound. It’s not gone. It’s just… waiting.
Today, the What-If Labs downstairs serve as the pavilion’s interactive area, but they lack the scale, ambition, and emotional resonance of the original. The upstairs ImageWorks remains one of EPCOT’s most poignant ghosts—a place where imagination once lived boldly, and where echoes of Dreamfinder and Figment still whisper through the glass
