Unbuilt Projects

[_Citizen_Dane_]

Regarding Dub's teepee proposal: it's really interesting to see how just slight changes, in this case replacing four teepees with one glass pyramid, made the public do a complete 180, going from universally despised to almost universally loved.

 

[JNO1]

(Apologies for the poor quality pictures of all these newspaper articles.)
There were also several proposals in the 1980s to dome Commonwealth Stadium.
This first hideous mess was proposed not long after the stadium was opened in 1978. Estimate of $40 million to build.

This $50M proposal from 1985 would have apparently been the world's largest domed stadium at that time.

And the last "serious" proposal I remember seeing was from 1988. The cost was up to $100M. Kind of neat but looks like an alien ship landed in the Big E!!

 

[JNO1]

This smaller dome was proposed by the Ensphere Group of Canada for the 1983 Universiade Games. It was to be built on the site of the old Varsity Stadium and the Butterdome. Apparently it would have been large enough for indoor soccer and football. This proposal lost out to what is now the Butterdome.

 

[Daveography]

And finally the cone proposal that was booed and hissed at by a great many Edmontonians.

View attachment 250004

 

[JNO1]

And finally, this was proposed by Peter Pocklington (mid 1980s??) to replace John Ducey Park. It was to seat 10,000-12,000 and cost $8M. Notice home plate is on Rossdale Road, rotated 90 degrees to the west from what we have now at ReMax Field.

And just for spits and giggles, here is a concept drawn up by a budding young architect/civil engineer wannabe (me) sometime in 1979/1980 when all of the arguing had just started over building a new baseball stadium to replace the old John Ducey park. My thought was to do some adds/renos to Commonwealth to fit a baseball field within. Deconstruct the very bottom portion of some of the sections in the west stands and replace with fold able aluminum stands that could be moved back and forth for baseball and football (including all necessary bracing/supports). Kind of like what we had with the lower half of the lower tier at the Coliseum. Not sure if this would have been possible from an engineering standpoint. Also, add on to the upper deck on the southeast side to allow more seats directly behind home plate. This was possible as that is what was done when they added on to Commonwealth for the 1983 Universiade. Anyway, here it is in all its glory.

 

[_Citizen_Dane_]

While not ever seriously proposed, here's some interesting conceptuals courtesy of the February 8th, 1982 edition of the Journal:

 

[darwink]

You can see elements of it which were implemented on Jasper, though as renovations happen less and less. It is too bad a bit more money wasn’t available for the post cut and cover LRT rebuild to implement closer to the full vision. I remember hearing that trolley bus wires were seen as an impediment to doing more at the time, though that sound more like a convenient excuse setting two things people like against each other rather than an insurmountable obstacle.

 

[ChazYEG]

While not ever seriously proposed, here's some interesting conceptuals courtesy of the February 8th, 1982 edition of the Journal:

View attachment 267720
View attachment 267721View attachment 267718

It was actually kinda cool. I would've loved to see Jasper like this!!!

 

[archited]

^^^^ That's what I'm talkin' about! Something much more engaging than planters and benches.

 

[ChazYEG]

^^^^ That's what I'm talkin' about! Something much more engaging than planters and benches.

And it would've looked extraordinary, from an aesthetic perspective

 

[Daveography]

Second Street Arcade — dub architects

dubarchitects.ca

 

[Daveography]

AGA competition entry from Dub Architects, Arthur Erickson and Nick Milkovich Architects.

Art Gallery of Alberta — dub architects

dubarchitects.ca

 

[Daveography]

Edmonton Gateway (entry for a competition that was later scrapped):

Edmonton Gateway — dub architects

dubarchitects.ca

 

[Daveography]

Proposal for repurposing part of the old Walterdale Bridge:

Walterdale Bridge — dub architects

dubarchitects.ca

 

[IanO]

Part of me really wanted this, but the new bridge/vista of it is so clean and nice that this would have disrupted that.