The Most Spectacular Buildings That Were Never Built

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The A+D Museum, our favorite innovative West Coast exhibition space for all things architecture and design, just launched a Kickstarter to finish up an ambitious show slated to open this spring titled Never Built: Los Angeles. The fascinating project asks the big “what if” about the many visionary but never realized projects that would have made one of the world’s most criticized cities one of its most innovative. Co-curated by Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin and designed by the celebrated firm Clive Wilkinson Architects, the show not only chronicles a fascinating chapter in a reluctant city’s history, it also champions the simple notion of dreaming big.

Inspired by the idea, we decided to take a more global look. From Frank Lloyd Wright’s daring design for a resort high atop the Hollywood Hills to Antonio Gaudi’s grand, unrealized hotel in Manhattan, click through to check out some of the world’s most spectacular buildings that never made it off the drawing board.

Huntington Hartford Sports Club and Resort by Frank Lloyd Wright – Hollywood, California

Image credit: Tropic

Hotel Attraction by Antoni Gaudí – New York City, New York

Image credit: architecture is poetry

Pink Guggenheim by Frank Lloyd Wright – New York City, New York

Image credit: Designs by Frank Lloyd Wright

Cénotaphe à Newton by Étienne-Louis Boullée

Image credit: NULL ENTROPY

The Palace of Soviets by Boris Iofan – Moscow, Russia

Image credit: Skyscraper Life; From Bauhaus to Bainhaus

Ville Contemporaine by Le Corbusier

Image credit: archdaily; life_through_a_lens

Museum of Tolerance by Frank Gehry – Jerusalem, Israel

Image credit: archiCentral

Corcoran Gallery of Art Addition by Frank Gehry – Washington D.C.

Image credit: COROFLOT

Guggenheim Guadalajara by Enrique Norten – Guadalajara, Mexico

Image credit: Skyscraper City

La Tour Sans Fin by Jean Nouvel – Paris, France

Image credit: http://tooraj.de/projekte/wolkenkratzer/la_tour_sans_fins.htm

The Howard Hawks Residence by Richard Neutra

Image credit: 50 Westerns from the ’50s

Warshaw Residence by Rudolph Schindler – Los Angeles, California

Image credit: Postales Inventadas