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Unbuilt Projects

 
1968 proposal - 96-99st

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https://twitter.com/x/status/1340432659621715971
 
^Yup, I posted it here before with a few other proposals from the same report:
_Citizen_Dane_ said:
Three of my favourite unbuilt projects will always be these ones, related to the City's early 1960s quest for a new arena. You had the awesomely space-age looking Hashman proposal;
View attachment 206949

The Stanford Research Institute's almost modern looking proposal;
View attachment 206950

And then you had C.N.'s crazily audacious plan, which you'll often see erroneously referred to on other boards as the "C.N. Pylon";
View attachment 206948

A full copy of "A Coliseum, Trade Centre or Domed Stadium for Edmonton," filed with the descriptions of all these projects, can be found here.
Click to expand...
 
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Since I haven't seen it posted here yet: Here's a video on "Future Station", which was an LRT station planned for below the provincial court and remand centre, between Churchill and Stadium stations. It was never completed, but stairs, elevator shafts, platforms, and ventilation were all installed in the 1970s. They were just concreted in, because the demand for the station never materialized. Here's an article on the station.
 
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CplKlinger said:
Since I haven't seen it posted here yet: Here's a video on "Future Station", which was an LRT station planned for below the provincial court and remand centre, between Churchill and Stadium stations. It was never completed, but stairs, elevator shafts, platforms, and ventilation were all installed in the 1970s. They were just concreted in, because the demand for the station never materialized. Here's an article on the station.
Click to expand...
future station’s initial intent to be a “transfer station” for prisoners is reinforced by the fact it is a side track rather than a centre track station - the only one on the system - for security reasons. i seem to recall conceptual planning for the remand centre was to have it in fort saskatchewan instead of where it ended up on 127 street. as well as court appearances for those incarcerated, it would have facilitated visitors to those institutions (lawyers as well as family).
 
IanO said:
I believe that it was a one-time thing... but could not agree more that this should/could be a permanent display somewhere.
Click to expand...
I still pine for an Architecture Museum of Alberta perhaps at the old Museum site in Glenora... Complete with room sized dioramas of the Edmonton and Calgary skylines in model form... Or at least this concept within a larger City of Museum of Edmonton with a whole display on Unbuilt Edmonton...
 
JNO1 said:
Yes I too was a teenager at that time and ticked off as well. Eaton Center was quite the saga spread over a number of years and with at least 4 different concepts with some combination of retail, hotel, office and recreational amenities. I guess we ended up with the retail and hotel, although a much smaller hotel than was planned. Here are the four different concepts that I was aware of (and there may have been more).

#1. July 1980 - Two 50 story residential towers and two 40 storey office buildings (there may have been a hotel as well)
View attachment 244575

#2. 1982/83 - two 50 storey residential towers, two 40 storey office towers and a hotel
View attachment 244577

#3. August 1985 - one 40 storey residential/hotel tower and a 40 storey office building
View attachment 244580

#4. And last but not least, this would have been in 1986/87.
View attachment 244582
Click to expand...

#3 is a complete dumpster fire but I wouldn't have minded to see any number of these versions built, TBH... The only one missing is the original vision of an 80-story skyscraper and mall however I don't think a rendering of that was ever released. That one IN THEORY* could have been built however it would have had a very steep uphill battle against Transport Canada regulations since although the site WASN'T directly in a runway glide slope it was a radius cone that had capped all construction at 490' with the exception of permission of TC... Despite a few proposals including the ultra-modernist CN Tripod and obviously the original Ghermizian 80-story tower, none ever went as far as to actually do this...

Also MacLab owned the Eaton Centre parkade and there was a proposal to redevelop that tower and a model was constructed and everything however when I contacted the company some years ago they said they had lost all renderings and models of the project... What a pity!
 
.crystalised. said:
Totally agree. I feel the break in the urban wall whenever I walk or drive past Telus Plaza. I really hope we get the lot filled immediately west of the Convention Centre as well, where that tribble tower was supposed to go. And I really hope 9955 Jasper proceeds. The most prominent side of our CBD feels "unfinished".


Interesting, thanks. I've never known the history of how that Journal building came to be. I've always had mixed feelings about what we have today. While I am happy our paper remains headquartered downtown, I truly hope that someday the building can be demolished for something nice and tall in that spot, once we've used up our surface lots. It would be so striking to come up around the corner of Bellamy Hill to reveal something tall there.


I wish we had more on-the-nose English architecture in this city. The carriage house at Government House is one of my favourites, and I wish there was a lot more.


Even the early draft called for an unnecessarily large podium and a squat tower. Weird. It's a waste of space on a prominent corner and the size of the podium only draws more attention to the short tower, as if to say "good enough for Edmonton".


Are you a fan of the Seagram Building in NYC? I'd love for something like that to have been constructed in Edmonton, especially at 107 Avenue so that it stands out and acts as a sort of gateway to the CBD.
Click to expand...

I've designed for S&G (sh*ts and giggles) my own fantasy version of a building for that Telus Plaza site on Jasper Avenue and Rice Howard Way... To me that is the best overall site for something really special... A true icon for the city... Sure it's a tight squeeze but sooooo many possibilities...
 
CplKlinger said:
Since I haven't seen it posted here yet: Here's a video on "Future Station", which was an LRT station planned for below the provincial court and remand centre, between Churchill and Stadium stations. It was never completed, but stairs, elevator shafts, platforms, and ventilation were all installed in the 1970s. They were just concreted in, because the demand for the station never materialized. Here's an article on the station.
Click to expand...
I always heard a rumor about a station being roughed in under WEM. Obviously it is just that, a rumor. But I could imagine there is a lot going on under WEM the general public doesn't know about.

That one always intrigued me.
 
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