Rainbow Corridor

ImageWorks; just saying the name drums up all sorts of feelings for adults who were children in EPCOT Center. This was the interactive area of Journey Into Imagination that occupied the second floor of the Imagination pavilion’s glorious glass pyramids. The area closed with the original attraction back in 1998, and even though nearly two decades have gone by since, the area still holds fond memories for those who were able to see it in all of its glory.

Typically, I could be found tied to either Figment’s Coloring Book and the Magic Palettes, as both let me taking my coloring book skills onto a massive scale, or the Stepping Tones, the hexagon shaped lighted floor patterns that made musical tones when you stepped onto them. The Pin Screens were also a favorite for my sister and me, especially since they were sharp but also had a way of tickling us. Honestly, while we had our favorites, there was nothing in the ImageWorks that we would have sneered at, from the Bubble Music and Giant Kaleidoscopes to Dreamfinder’s School of Drama, we would spend hours engaging our imaginations up there. No matter how much time we had in the ImageWorks, we would also find some time to briskly run through, carefully minding the other guests of course, the Rainbow Corridor.

My only regret for this article is that the above picture isn’t in full color, but this gives you a sense of what the Rainbow Corridor looked like. It snaked through the ImageWorks with lighted tubes that changed color as you made your way through the tunnel, which was also known as the Sensor Maze. Everyone who was anyone wanted their picture taken with the Rainbow Corridor, and I could remember seeing pictures in my local newspaper of celebrities taking in the wonder of this attraction during EPCOT Center’s formative years. I’m certain we have a color photograph in our family collection of this unique experience, I just haven’t found it yet.

When the ImageWorks closed in 1998, the Rainbow Corridor was left intact in its original spot. There it would stay until construction began for the Imagination DVC Lounge that currently occupies the second floor of the pavilion. While I remain every optimistic that the Rainbow Corridor, and some of the more timeless attractions of the ImageWorks, may find new life in some form one day, for now it must reside in our memories and photographs. Then again, those memories and the emotional connection we have to them seem to be precisely one of the lessons we were supposed to learn from the Dreamfinder and Figment.