An excellent idea for a thread. So many proposals have come and gone over the years that it's insane;
Going way back in time you had this project that never got off the ground. It was to be the city's main police and fire department headquarters. Designed by Architect Allan Merrick Jeffers, of the Legislature Building fame, it was floated around 1913/14. I've come across news clippings discussing it, but have yet to find out why it was canceled; I'm assuming it had to due to the war, lack of material and manpower, and Edmonton's dwindling population.
From the same period was the University of Alberta's original masterplan by Montreal architectural firm Nobbs & Darling. Again, lack of growth and shifting priorities in the following decades saw it massively altered;
Another amazing proposal from before the Great War was this Byzantine-inspired Strathcona Cathedral, to be located around 84 Avenue, and 105 Street; sadly i've been unable to find much about it.
Three of my favourite unbuilt projects will always be these ones, related to the City's early 1960's quest for a new arena. You had the awesomely space-age looking Hashman proposal;
The Stanford Research Institute's almost modern looking proposal;
And then you had C.N.'s crazily audacious plan, which you'll often see erroneously referred to on other boards as the "CN Pylon";
A full copy of "A Coliseum, Trade Centre or Domed Stadium for Edmonton," filled with the descriptions of all these projects, can be found
here.
And what would be an unbuilt projects thread without the MET Freeway;
What's really interesting to note is that the first two arena proposals up above were a direct result of the METS Plan. You many notice that the site they were supposed to be built on is the current location of Canada Place. Well, in the early 60's the City ended up buying pretty much everything between 99 and 97 Streets between Jasper and 102 Avenues for the purposes of constructing an interchange, and what was left was to be allocated for a new stadium;
However, when the freeway completely fell through around 1964, so did the arena proposals, and the City was left with this huge chunk of area largely consisting of old and decaying turn-of-the-century buildings. They sat on it until 1980 when they entered into a three way deal with the Province and Federal Government. The Province got the Federal Public Building on the Legislative Grounds for $20,000,000, the Fed's got this piece of land, and the City got the Ortona, Prince of Wales, and Connaught Armouries.
A few portions of the MET were actually built. Obviously the James MacDonald Bridge, and its grossly overbuilt series of turnoffs is the most well known but a few other small vestiges exist. For instance, 117 Street just south of 107 Avenue near St. Joachim's Cemetery. It merges into 116 Street at 105 Avenue, and this was done as part of the first stage of the plan. Then there's 107A Avenue. Between the McCauley area's gridding in the early 20th Century to about 1960, no 107A Avenue existed between 97 and 101 Streets. As you can see below, the Ave's odd curve and overbuilt nature is the result of the plan;
