13 Impressive Structures from Around the World That Were Never Built (19 Photos)

It's good that some particularly distinguished projects over the years have been turned into high-quality computer models that look almost like a photograph. We will look at 13 such renderings, imagining that these structures could really exist.





Unfortunately, the fate of many great creative projects is to remain a drawing, sketch or plan, without ever receiving its physical embodiment in the real world. This is especially true for architecture, where the attrition rate is so great that even quite successful and well-thought-out ideas are left behind. Well, what can you do? There isn’t enough space on the planet for everyone.

1. Ulysses Grant Bridge, Washington







Ulysses Grant - 18th President of the United States. Now the much more modest Arlington Memorial Bridge has been built on the site of this picturesque bridge.

2. National American Indian Memorial, New York



It was assumed that the memorial would be a figure of an Indian, which would be taller than the Statue of Liberty. It would have stood on a neo-Aztec pyramid, which in turn would have towered over the museum complex.

3. One of the World Trade Center concepts



This large-scale design proposal from United Architects was not approved and was replaced by a design by architect Daniel Libeskind.

4. EuroRoute Bridge between Great Britain and France



Before the construction of the Eurotunnel under the English Channel, which at one time seemed like a surreal project, the French architect Jean-Paul Viguier proposed his partially above-water version. But it also turned out to be too sci-fi. Just imagine!

The bridge was supposed to go only part of the way across the Strait of Dover and lead to an island in the middle of the strait, from where it spiraled down into an underwater tunnel, which ended on exactly the same island on the side of England or France (depending on which direction you are traveling), from where the path continued along the bridge again.

5. Hudson River Bridge, New York





The planned bridge was to be a much larger structure than the George Washington Bridge that stands in its place today.

6. Tokyo Olympic Stadium Project





Project by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid.

A similar ultra-modern structure was designed for the 2020 Olympic Games. The project was scrapped due to delays in the building's construction, cost overruns and criticism from leading architects and athletes, who even filed a petition to abandon the project due to its scale, which could have a negative impact on nearby facilities.

As a result, the modest Japanese National Stadium was built in its place.

7. Monument “Democracy Uniting the World”, California, USA



The monument plan turned out to be an unrealized 1954 attempt to give the West Coast its own Statue of Liberty.

8. Project of the Crimean Bridge 1949





The bridge was designed by the Soviet architect Boris Konstantinov, but the costs required for such construction turned out to be prohibitive in the post-war period. By the way, they planned to make the bridge two-level!

9. Liberty Memorial, Kansas City, USA





A similar war memorial dedicated to the First World War was considered the most dramatic of all the concepts, but a more traditional stele was eventually erected in its place.

10. Gordon Strong Planetarium Project in Maryland, USA



Architect Frank Lloyd Wright, 1925. The structure was supposed to be a huge planetarium with a dome, on the outside of which there was a spiral platform for cars.

11. Spiral, London



By Daniel Libeskind, 1996. The building, provocative in its forms, could be adjacent to the classic Victoria and Albert Museum.

12. Fourth Grace Museum, Liverpool



By Will Alsop, 2002. The extremely eccentric-looking museum was planned to be built on Liverpool Pier as part of the city's bid to be named European Capital of Culture 2008. But such a structure turned out to be too specific to please the majority of townspeople.

13. Dubai Opera House



By Zaha Hadid, 2006. A grandiose project to match the facilities and likely costs for which Dubai is famous. However, construction of a new opera house and a cultural center around it has not yet begun.