The Cool Unbuilt Structures Thread!

[warpus]

Hope you don't mind me ripping off your thread, Perfection I am a skyscraper/architecture-phile and so I naturally wanted to post some more skyscrapers.. such as the Chicago Spire.. and soon realized that it dooesn't even exist yet, so it wouldn't be fair to post it in the other thread.

So I hereby present the cool unbuilt structures thread! Be it structures that have been proposed but never built or are in the process of being built (in which case you could post renderings). Please post actual designs, and not just fantasy renders. Basically, anything that was actually considered as a potential design, and not just a "dude, that'd be sweeet" type of thing.

I'll start things off with a structure I already mentioned.

The Chicago Spire - Chicago, USA - proposed designs - being considered

In comparison, the current tallest free-standing structure in the world is the CN tower with 1,815 feet and the Burj Dubai is expected to reach at least 2,600 feet.

That's not a great render either, but the new proposed designs juust came out. Given enough time, the dedicate skyscraper-phile community will produce much better renders. Originally this spire was going to be much much thinner and with a huge antenna on top. On a side note, this design reminds me of Orthanc from Lord of the Rings

found the original design:

Dubai Towers - Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Sama Dubai, the real estate development and investment arm of Dubai Holding has announced the launch of ‘Dubai Towers – Dubai’, a cluster of breath-taking towers that combine, to form a truly inspiring and dynamic sculpture.

Centrepiece of ‘The Lagoons’ Central Business District, the ‘Dubai Towers - Dubai’ will comprise four state-of-the-art towers for residential, commercial, retail and hospitality purposes. Ranging between 57–94 floors, the estimated date of completion of ‘Dubai Towers - Dubai’ complex is mid 2010.

‘The Lagoons’ is a mixed-use freehold development being built along the Dubai Creek coastline. The AED 65 billion (US$ 18 billion) project will cover an area of 70 million square feet over 40 kilometres of waterfront land. Located next to the Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary, ‘The Lagoons’ will ensure harmonious existence with the surrounding eco-systems.

‘The Lagoons’ will appeal to tourists seeking cultural attractions with its theatre, museum, arts center and Dubai’s opera house.

 

[Tee Kay]

The Palace of the Soviets

The project submitted by Boris Iofan won the 1933 competition against many other projects, including others by Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Erich Mendelsohn. The selection of Iofan's project was a turning point in architectural history, a signal that the Soviet revolutionary government had turned away from Modernist Constructivism and back toward historical styles.

A 100 metre (325 feet) high statue of Vladimir Lenin topped a superstructure composed of several receding tiers of cylindrical masses, evocative of artistic depictions of the Tower of Babel. The total height of the building was planned at 415 meters (1365 feet), 34 meters taller than the Empire State Building, the tallest building at that time. The Palace would have housed several museums, and main and secondary auditoriums, with lower and underground levels given to traffic handling, storage, and technical equipment.

The building was supposed to give the impression of an enormous ladder to the sky. The utilitarian purpose of the building was to house Congresses of Soviets, likely the World Congress of Soviets.

The Palace was to be constructed on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, one of Moscow's largest churches. Demolition work began in July 1931 and the structure was finished off with explosives[1] on December 5, 1931; however, water seepage into the site from the nearby Moskva River soon turned the area into a giant stagnant pond, delaying construction.

The World War II attack on Moscow in 1941 halted construction work leaving an excavation site[2][3] and never resumed.[4]

After Stalin's death in 1953, Khrushchev finally terminated the project for good, and its only complete part, a sumptuously decorated station of the Moscow Metro, was renamed as Kropotkinskaya. The site itself was turned into a huge open air[1] public swimming pool.[2][3]

After the end of the Soviet Union, the $ 200,000,000 reconstruction of the Cathedral was started on January 7, 1995 and it was officially consecrated (and thus inaugurated) on August 19, 2000.

 

[Trajan12]

The New World Trade Center

Screw you Osama.

Wikipedia
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the agency charged with coordinating the reconstruction of the World Trade Center site, selected the master plan, Memory Foundations by Daniel Libeskind,[20] which includes the 1776 ft (541 m) Freedom Tower. The height of 1,776 feet (541 m) was chosen as a reference to the year of American independence. A new 7 World Trade Center office building, which was not part of the site master plan, officially opened on May 23, 2006.

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation sponsored an international design competition for the World Trade Center Memorial in spring 2003. The winning design, Michael Arad and Peter Walker's Reflecting Absence, was chosen in January 2004.
Ground Zero and the US Flag (2004)
Enlarge
Ground Zero and the US Flag (2004)

The World Trade Center name will continue to be used as name of the site, as will the New York City Subway and PATH train stations that serve the complex. A temporary PATH station, largely following the layout of the original, is the first part of the complex to have re-opened.

On November 22, 2004, New York Governor George Pataki named the living former presidents as honorary members of the board rebuilding the World Trade Center.

On June 29, 2005, a redesigned Freedom Tower was unveiled which more closely resembled the character of the fallen towers. The new design also boasted several safety improvements over previous proposals.

On December 15, 2005, Sir Norman Foster was announced as the architect who will design the second of five new office towers planned for the site.

As of early 2006 progress at the World Trade Center site is slowly building up. Workers will soon move PATH train cables out of the way in order to start foundation work on both the Freedom Tower, permanent PATH station, underground parking and the Memorial. By the end of 2006, the site is finally expected to look like the massive construction project that built the previous WTC.
World Trade Center Site, June 2006.
Enlarge
World Trade Center Site, June 2006.

On March 13, 2006 workers arrived at the World Trade Center site to remove remaining debris and start surveying work. This marks the official start of construction of the WTC Memorial and Museum.[21]

In April 2006, a tentative agreement was reached by the owner of the site, The Port Authority, and private developer Larry Silverstein. The main elements of that agreement are that Silverstein ceded rights to develop the Freedom Tower and Tower Five in exchange for financing with Liberty Bonds for Tower Two, Three, and Four which are considered to be the most marketable properties of the site. On April 27, 2006, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the Freedom Tower.[22]

In May 2006, architects Richard Rogers and Fumihiko Maki were announced as the architects for Towers Three and Four, respectively.

The final designs for Towers Two, Three and Four were unveiled on September 7, 2006. Tower Two, or 200 Greenwich Street, will have a roof height of 1,254 feet and a 85-foot tripod spire. Tower Three, or 175 Greenwich Street will have a roof height of 1,155 feet and an antennae height of 1,255 feet. Tower Four, or 150 Greenwich Street, will have an over

 

[JonnyB]

The Mubarak Al-kabil Tower (proposed) in Subiya Kuwait

The main attraction of Madinat al-Hareer, the Mubarak al-Kabir Tower will stand at 1,001 m tall, almost twice the height of Taipei 101, which is 509m tall, and considerably taller than the world's tallest structure, the KVLY-TV mast in North Dakota, which is 629 m tall. However it would not overtake the Magnolia Tension-leg Platform, an oil rig under construction in the Gulf of Mexico, which at 1,430 m will be the world's tallest structure.

1001 meters = 3284 feet

 

[amadeus]

Kazakhstan, greatest country in the world.
All other countries are run by little girls!
Kazakhstan number one exporter of potassium!
Other countries have inferior potassium!

Giant tent to be built in Astana

Kazakhstan has unveiled a new architectural project for its capital Astana - a giant transparent tent that will contain an indoor city.

The 150m-high (500ft) dome, designed by UK architect Norman Foster, will be built in just over a year.

The tent is being made from special material that absorbs sunlight to create the effect of summer inside.

Astana lies in the very heart of the Central Asian steppe. Temperatures there often drop to -30C in the winter.

 

[warpus]

Libeskind proposal for St. Petersburg

Not sure how tall, but it's supposed to be a "supertall", so I'm guessing around 400+ metres / 1,500+ feet

 

[Irish Caesar]

Ugh. Skyscrapers are supposed to be phallic, straight up, reaching to the heavens; not wavy and twisting and whatever else.

To go against this trend, here's the National Library, designed by Boullee in the 1780's:

 

[puglover]

Presenting... the Vokshalle

Yes, not only was Hitler a pathetic general, he was a failure of an architect as well. The Vokshalle would have been cool, asthetically, but completely insane when thought about realisticly

Although the Volkshalle was never built, critics claimed it might have severe architectural problems, such as acoustics that would (depending on the critic) either make it impossible to hear a speaker, or would magnify the speaker's voice so loud that it might cause deafness.

In an interview with James O'Donnell, Speer said that, during his time in Spandau Prison, he constantly reviewed such criticisms of his architecture, and eliminated (in his opinion) many of them. One problem, however, remained - Speer speculated that during cold weather, the breathing and perspiration of 180,000 occupants in such a large and high dome might precipitate and fall back down. In short, it was possible that the hall might cause indoor rain because of its overcapacity.

Because Berlin is a city founded on swampland, the engineers conducted several experiments to see how this huge building could be built on the muddy ground. A standing relic of this testing is the Schwerbelastungskörper (literal translation: Heavy load-bearing body) on Dudenstrasse in Berlin. It is a mushroom-shaped cylinder constructed out of 12650 tons of concrete; and it is 18 meters tall. It could not be demolished with explosives shortly after the war due to nearby apartment buildings, and so has remained. Since 1995, it is regarded as a historic monument and is hence protected as such.

 

[h4ppy]

I wish that big Soviet building had been built.

 

[GinandTonic]

im looking forward to the shard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shard_London_Bridge

Sorry too lazy to host the image, you'll just have to click through...

 

[odintheking]

Dude, that Chicago Spire looks like a twisted Isengard!

 

[h4ppy]

Not so much as a single, "oh wow, h4ppy's back?!" post? Lame. You all are.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

That building under Lenin looks curiously like Moscow State University.

 

[amadeus]

Actually, it slightly resembles all of the "Stalin's seven sisters" buildings in Moscow.

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

Not so much as a single, "oh wow, h4ppy's back?!" post? Lame. You all are.

Actually, that was the first thing I thought when I read your first one.

Welcome back.

 

[sonorakitch]

Oh yes....this one must be built:

http://www.tdrinc.com/ultima.html

~Chris

 

[Dann]

It's an arcology!

 

[Fetus4188]

It looks like a giant topiary.

 

[Tee Kay]

Oh yes....this one must be built:

http://www.tdrinc.com/ultima.html

~Chris

Here's another from the same website. Shenzhen Tower.

http://www.tdrinc.com/shtower.html

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Very cool thread.