Unbuilt Projects

FCC1982 · Feb 18, 2026

"Alberta Business Journal" from 1971 continued . . .

Edmonton Centre including TD Tower - early days (didn't know SOM was involved in the design):

Edmonton House - almost completed:

With it's circular companion - The Chateau Lacombe:

Mill Woods Plan:

James MacDonald Bridge construction - was to be part of an inner-city freeway system I beleive:

FCC1982 · Feb 18, 2026

From "Alberta Business Journal" 1972. This is the last year I found for this publication.
There are other publications I found with Edmonton related stuff that I will post in the coming days.
Hope you enjoy.

Victoria Plaza on the right - says 60 storeys (but I only count around 47)

Did some form of this ever get built ?

Edmonton Centre design moving along in 1972 - love the hand-drawn pencil sketch:

Edmonton Plaza Hotel:

Edmonton focused issue - Oct. 1972:

FCC1982 · Feb 18, 2026

Doing this research one realizes it really was a time of unbridled optimism for the entire province.

Glenco · Feb 18, 2026

FCC1982 said:
What did Lougheed do to quash optimism ?

BTW - I have more to post - I’ll do so over the coming week or so.

I outlined how he consolidated the oil industry in YYC in a previous post.
Another example was a new university that the previous Social Credits in St. Albert on the banks of the Sturgeon River. They wanted to put it there because they didn’t want to upset their base. Because they were a bunch of prudes they didn’t want to call it Sturgeon University because of sexual association so they called it Athabasca University instead. Lougheed decided that a new university wasn’t necessary as the baby boom was ending and the extra capacity would never be required so he turned it into distance learning University.
A few years later someone reasoned that because it was called Athabasca University it should be located in Athabasca and damn the cost and the university’s relationship with the U of A.

archited · Feb 20, 2026

^ Athabasca University is doing fine... I am currently taking Master-level courses there in Environmental Studies and I have an excellent rapport with Administration. They have found their niche.

Glenco · Feb 20, 2026

archited said:
^ Athabasca University is doing fine... I am currently taking Master-level courses there in Environmental Studies and I have an excellent rapport with Administration. They have found their niche.

Not the point I was making. It has been a political football since its inception. Just look at what Nicholaides did a few years ago getting the president fired because he wanted more people to move to Athabasca instead of providing instruction from remote locations. I wonder how that turned out?

archited · Feb 20, 2026

^ Gotcha. Most instructors are remote based on my own experience... one History instructor worked out of Lethbridge for example.

FCC1982 · Thursday at 7:25 PM

I'm back to post the last of the "stuff" I found on Edmonton while researching at the Calgary Public Library.
As I mentioned initially, a lot of this is not "Unbuilt" but since I posted the 1960s & 70s stuff in this thread - I'll do the same for this.

Ok - The following is all basically from 3 publications, "Construction West", "Business Life in Western Canada", & "Alberta Business" for the period from 1977 through 1982 when Edmonton REALLY boomed.

I'll start with some of the major towers from that time -

A.E. LePage Tower - I always really liked this one:

Next is the Canadian Commercial Bank Tower - always liked this one too:

FCC1982 · Thursday at 7:33 PM

Next up is the Interprovincial Pipelines Tower:
Note that in the second image developer Pat Bowlen hints at a future project that would be "the most dramatic in Edmonton" but I don't know what project he was referring to. I believe Pat Bowlen was from Edmonton and went on to own the Denver Broncos.