What are the most interesting unrealised urban visions?

Buildings, infrastructure, entire planned cities that didn't get built etc.

Speer's Berlin is cheating (though if somebody knows a resource showing what it would've looked like, I'm all ears).
 
Buildings, infrastructure, entire planned cities that didn't get built etc.

Speer's Berlin is cheating (though if somebody knows a resource showing what it would've looked like, I'm all ears).



They wouldn't have been able to build any of this though. The heavy load-bearing bodies used to test the soil, however, sank 18 cm over three years while they were only allowed to sink 6 cm. This meant the marshy soil wouldn't have been able to support the planned gargantuan structures.
 


They wouldn't have been able to build any of this though. The heavy load-bearing bodies used to test the soil, however, sank 18 cm over three years while they were only allowed to sink 6 cm. This meant the marshy soil wouldn't have been able to support the planned gargantuan structures.
These are the Nazis we're talking about here. They would have used slave labor to dig foundations down to the bedrock. If a few hundred thousand "undesirables" have to die building it, it wouldn't have mattered.
Let's be glad that Germania is relegated to Alternate History.
 
Pretty much any design for Canberra other than the OTL one (which they butchered anyway).
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Various Sydney Harbour Bridges which for some reason do not cause any butterflies, resulting in a OTL opera house.
 
There were many different proposals for the Eiffel Tower, but it's not really urbanism per say.

And, this is not a precise vision, but Los Angeles applying Jane Jacobs' urbanism doctrine would make for a very different California
 

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I don't know, I'm sure it would be a lot better inside than the current version. Which reminds me of a 70's cinema.
 

kernals12

Banned
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This is Marincello. A planned suburb that was to be built in Marin County, CA. Environmentalists stopped it from being built and it's now a hiking area.
 

kernals12

Banned
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How much of San Francisco bay could've been filled in without environmentalist intervention. The water between Alameda and San Mateo Counties would've become a river.
 
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Woah. Far more impressive than I would've expected. But no way it could have ever happened.
Of the designs entered, I’ve seen they tend to fall into three basic categories:
  • Geometric designs that range from a bit strange to complete madness that would be total impractical, but looked sort of cool on paper but would have been hellish if applied across the whole city and would likely end up being half demolished or never built as they try and solve the ensuing traffic problems.
  • Designs similar to what Burley Griffin supplied or were inspired by the 'American' school or more grid like.
  • An 'Imperial' capital along the lines and style of Lutyens Dehli.
 
It was more than just urban design, but behold -- Norman Mailer and Jimmy Breslin's plan for a *new* New York.



Oh god, that was bigger than expected.

Anyways, when Norman Mailer ran for Mayor of New York in 1969 (on the first all-curmudgeonly-author ticket), his platform was called "New York City: The 51st State". It would have involved a drastic change in the infrastructure of New York:

New York City would be split off from the rest of New York State, and achieve independent statehood as the 51st State of the U.S.

A casino would be built on either Randall's Island, Roosevelt Island, or Coney Island, with tax revenues going directly to the City-State.

All private cars would be banned from Manhattan Island. Buses and taxicabs would be permitted, with the number of cabs increased. Parking lots would be built outside Manhattan at strategic locations. A monorail, built around the circumference of Manhattan, would service these lots, stopping also at rail stations and water ferry terminals. A free bus and jitney service would operate in Midtown, the city's most congested area. Publicly owned bicycles would be available to all at no cost.

One Sunday per month would be designated "Sweet Sunday," when every form of mechanical transportation – including elevators – would be halted.

And that's just some of it.

He only got 5% of the primary vote, but imagine if, IDK, he hadn't stabbed his wife multiple times a few years earlier. Ah, what could have been for want of a penknife.
 
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