What are the most interesting unrealised urban visions?

Deleted member 94680

Looked a little better when new, but that's Modernism, doesn't appeal to everyone.

That’s the problem. They require the occupants to renovate them (unlikely as they were meant for low-income families) or the management company to do so (unlikely as they were managing a low-income tennant project, so they likely had ‘better’ projects on their books). It was a short-term splash of colour without much thought to the long-term maintenance of the colour.
 
I do not mean to boast but this is an extremely rare blueprint of the proposed Palace of Whitehall, after the original burnt down. It took me years to find these despite their actual existence. Which is something because if I had not believed they existed then I would never have found them.

The Palace was designed by Inigo Jones. This is the contents list of all the plates: (http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cg...?type=header&id=DLDecArts.InigoJones1&isize=M) It takes quite a while to go through all the plates because there is a lot. I read in a book that Charles II would have built it if he won the civil war, I also read in another book that he wanted to re-enter the thirty years war. These both cost money so who knows.

This one is Christopher Wren's plan for rebuilding London - (http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/large103694.html) Apparently it was too simple, rushed and not enough effort was put into it.

The two above I love but these architectural designs I have a certain taste and passion for. It centres around the design of Grand Central Station in New York City. Here is the link (https://untappedcities.com/2013/02/...at-never-was-part-vii-grand-central-terminal/)

In all honesty I like McKim, Mead, and White structural design because the 60-story tower adds to the building architecturally, whereas Huckel and Reed and Stem designs just add a block on top, this lead to Warren and Wetmore to remove this in their design and was not built when they were building Grand Central Terminal with Reed and Stem. However, it is Warren and Wetmore Beaux-Arts detail that is astonishing, therefore McKim, Mead, and White and Warren and Wetmore collaboration would have been awesome, but I suspect Warren and Wetmore would still object to the overall structural design.

McKim, Mead, and White design

McKim, Mead, and White design 1.jpg


McKim, Mead, and White design 2.jpg


Huckel's design

Huckel’s design.jpg


Reed and Stem

Reed and Stem 1.jpg


Reed and Stem 2.jpg


Warren and Wetmore and Reed and Stem (What you see today)

Warrren & Wetmore and Reed & Stem.jpg
 
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In similar fashion there was Ernest Gimson's competition submission.

JZxAdl8_d.jpg

I came across it by accident via this site a few years back, Leicester museum also has some larger images here and here. I'm not wholly convinced by the design but it would have been interesting to see.
There was a site put up by the National Archives that contained alot of really good digitised design unsuccessful submissions as part of the 100 years of Canberra, but it seems to have been taken down.
 
I found this site. Is this the one you were looking for?

http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/snapshots/design29/index.aspx

It’s got some very interesting designs. I especially like Design No. 4’s “aerostatic station”.
I think that might have been it (or something very similar to it).

As for the airport, they picked about the worst site for it OTL so any change would be an improvement. However the Aerostatic station is interesting

What I find interesting is that many of the plans predicted a much bigger railway network than OTL ever reached.
 

kernals12

Banned
I feel like there's a disproportionate number of these unrealized visions in London, San Francisco, and New York. Is that because of architectual industry concentration? I'd have expected a lot more plans for Tokyo, a city which was destroyed twice in a generation. Meanwhile the devestated cities in continental Western Europe seemed content with just rebuilding what they previously had
 
What I find interesting is that many of the plans predicted a much bigger railway network than OTL ever reached.
Par for the course for early 20th century city designs, really. I mean, they were putting these together right when rail was, relatively speaking, at its apex, and right before cars became really popular; wouldn't you figure that a big train network would be necessary for a big city, and moreover that people would want a big train network?
 
Detroit had this plan for City Center
dome-in-downtown-detroit.jpg

A retractable multi-purpose dome as part of a massive 80-acre development at Riverside
the new Tiger Stadium to build in 1975
a 52,000 seat domed stadium that would be able to host 60,000 for American football or a music concert.
surrounded by shopping areas, walkways, parks, hotels and Underground parking lots

Today stands The Renaissance Center on that place
 
j-Armour%20Field%20and%20Comiskey%20Park%20looking%20north.jpg

On a slightly smaller scale there's Philip Bess' alternate design proposals for the White Sox's Comiskey Park in Chicago from the 1980s. You can find a pretty decent overview here which has an interesting discussion of what he considered to be a 'good' ballpark, and this page has some more images. The design and general ethos are nice but I'm not a fan of having to sacrifice Armour Square Park for it. Ideally they would have decamped for the three years necessary to demolish and rebuild on the same site but I have no idea how viable that would have been.
 
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