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Your city's biggest failed/downsized or cancelled building
Years back there was a bunch of hype, mostly from mayor and council about a new building to be built in Windsor. This building was to be located in one of the last remaining historic blocks in Windsor's core. It was located at what is probably the most prestigious addresses in little old Windsor. This building was hyped as the second coming of Windsor and was supposed to be the tallest building in Ontario west of Toronto (yes surpassing OLP in London).
The block they tore down is located at the forefront of this picture http://internationalmetropolis.com/i...008//0107b.jpg The proposal was this http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/...deproposed.jpg And once everything was torn down the drama ensued and in the end we lost an entire historic block (expropriated many businesses and killed any livelyhood in that block) and instead we got this stumpy version (which is a tiny bit taller than the brown CIBC building to left of the first picture) http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/...sideactual.jpg After the building was built the company that built it, Canderel had trouble leasing out space and so half the building sat empty, noticeably the main floor, but as well as half the tower. The main floor is still empty and the building was completed in 2002 (someone is finally occupying it this year). So not only was this a failed project, but it left a bad aftertaste for almost a decade. The city managed to save 1 historic building from that block, dismantling it in hopes of repurposing it again in another project, but the building still sits in storage in thousands of numbered pieces. Anyone else have any interesting stories to share like this? |
For Hamilton all I can think of is the recent joke building proposed by Harry Stinson for the Royal Connaught property. Basically a 100 story glass pyramid. I guess it doesn't count because the thing was so far out that nobody took it seriously. It was later cut in half, then just cut down to restoring the existing 13 story Royal Connaught. Then it died.
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For Toronto
The Weston Tower http://www.tobuilt.ca/php/Buildingim...onTowerNB1.jpghttp://www.tobuilt.ca/php/Buildingim...onTowerNB2.jpg One Bloor Version 5 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...dering_Day.jpg The Maryon Tower http://homesandcondosblog.com/wp-con...ytor-today.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Tower_1971.jpg Sapphire Harry Stinson Toronto Joke http://bricks.labattracks.net/kiwani...hireTower3.jpg T. Eaton Tower http://www.emporis.com/images/show/101275-Large.jpg And finally the Eaton Centre Towers http://www.blogto.com/upload/2010/11...atoncentre.jpg |
For Winnipeg, from my perspective on cancelled buildings, arguably this Manitoba Hydro proposal
http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?buildingID=25691 (can't get an img on the page :P) Some others that would have been big additions for the Peg: The original city hall http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/features/w.../cityhall1.jpg Original Bay proposal (never built) http://www.archiseek.com/gifs/bay.jpg second tower (Trizec building) http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yxY2yICdq9...decb6b8f7f.jpg then there's a few twin residential towers circa 2004 that never went up. I think 1ajs has a really neat collection of cancelled/never went through buildings for the Peg. As far as "failed" buildings, most would point to Portage Place. It has its place, and brought high rise development with it (and might still do so in the near future) but many people see it as a "failure" of sorts simply because it didn't do what people were hoping it would do. I would also say all the historical buildings torn down in the city, with "promises" of development, that never really went through. For example, if anyone has been down Main St. in Winnipeg, they sure can notice the difference between what exists now and what did exist: http://www.manitobaphotos.com/Postcards/p111.jpg |
from 1959-1970 there was a whole swack of stuff that was proposed that never got built
everything from a subway system to a freeway to a full out new downtown............ bits and peacs of it all got built and the key word bits of it......... anyhow a more recent odd ball from few yrs back http://www.pointdouglas.com/plugins/...mages/1427.jpg our mono rail that never got built http://www.pointdouglas.com/plugins/...mages/1401.jpg the exchange districtict was allmost entirely leveled for a freeway and new buildings........ |
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Unicity Mall failed bad in 2000, even worse than Portage Place |
That monorail would have been a blight on Portage Avenue. I'd say even worse than the destruction caused by Disraeli.
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Some projects submitted for Quebec City in the late 60's.
http://www.quebecurbain.qc.ca/archives/dessin-sr5.jpg http://www.quebecurbain.qc.ca/2005/0...ion-annees-60/ http://www.quebecurbain.qc.ca/archives/jc100_0773b.jpg http://www.quebecurbain.qc.ca/2007/11/ http://www.quebecurbain.qc.ca/images/2004/0820-1a.jpg http://www.quebecurbain.qc.ca/2004/0...-grande-place/ |
Some mighty ugly boxes all around. The worst, the most egregious are these Eaton centre towers. Not only are these towers out of proportion and just plain ugly, one of it called for the near total destruction of the old city hall, a true jewel.
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Edmonton
The 555 political fiasco 5 tower city centre project. (Podium was built - Mall) http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...atoncentre.jpg (http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...atoncentre.jpg) Manulife 2 - although it sounds like this is coming back:) redesigned of course http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...drsx/manu2.jpg (http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...drsx/manu2.jpg) |
Two more rather large cancelled projects in Edmonton. We would have given Calgary a run for the 'twin' title.
Commerce 2 http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/464...5283418wc2.gif (http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/464...5283418wc2.gif) Cant recall the name http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...EDMT2BIG-1.jpg (http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...EDMT2BIG-1.jpg) |
When the federal government was looking for a new home for the Portrait Gallery of Canada a few years ago, the preferred site was the former American embassy right across from Parliament.
But Gatineau developer Brigil (one of the biggest in Quebec) proposed this building to house the gallery (in addition to some other stuff): http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2360/...2e6a9ec4_o.jpg The back of the building would actually be on a small cliff (even if in the middle of the city) and offers amazing views of downtown Ottawa. The overhwhelmed older building is Columbia Farm, which dates back to around 1830 and is one of the oldest buildings in the region. The heritage building was to have been integrated with the freaky Burj Dubai-like new structure. Not sure if the feds ever took this seriously, but they scrapped the gallery project altogether anyway. |
That Maryon tower is about as ugly as ugly can be. Right up there with the detested Chad Kroger.
Montreal's biggest "fail" is undoubtedly Mirabel Airport, followed by the Big Owe. There was once an 80-storey proposal slated near place du Canada. Tour de la bourse (Place Victoria) was supposed to be three identical towers. The list of cancelled buildings in Montreal is longer than Santa's list. Perhaps because the city has been so naughty. ;) |
It's funny that the only reason the Maryon in Toronto never got built was because they thought that it was impossible for a building to be that tall.
Does anyone know what the height was supposed to be (I was told it was a very old proposal that was supposed to be the tallest building in the world and even still would be in the top ten). |
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That's actually not the reason why, John Maryon wanted to build it on a lot owned by Eaton's near College Park. The Eaton's company denied J Maryon the land when they saw the scale of the tower they wanted to build. Thank God though, it would have been way out of scale for that area at over 2x taller then Aura. I think Toronto's worse loss was the T Eaton Tower. Though technically it could still be built on the podium that we now have. All we need is an investor with deep pockets ok with losing about $100,000,000 so we can get that deco jewel. |
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It was to be 140 floors and 686 metres, and was proposed in 1971. So, it definitely would've been the tallest building in the world (by far) if it were built then and would still be the second tallest structure after the Burj Dubai. Thankfully that never happened though, because its godawful. |
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Well I thought what you said was right until I read article about it last night. I actually kind of like it and I wonder had it been built would it be surrounded by other supertalls now? There is an old SCTV skit where they did a towering inferno that now that I think about it kind of resembles this tower to a degree. I wonder if this is where they got their inspiration from. time - 2:30 |
The Ghermezian Brothers were actually proposing building an 83 storey tower in Edmonton around 1980-ish. Height restrictions would have been a problem of course. It would have been crazy to see something like that get built.
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