These buildings would have transformed skylines, but they were never built

In an alternate reality, the New York Stock Exchange could have graced an imposing tower resembling a Mayan temple, Disney World might have boasted an after-hours companion park called Night World, and Paris’ Centre Pompidou could have soared as a striking 344-foot alabaster egg.

For every architectural triumph that graces our skylines, countless ambitious projects have remained on the drawing board, mere whispers of what might have been. These unrealized visions—many conceived by renowned architects—are brought to life in “The Atlas of Never Built Architecture.” This compendium showcases around 350 projects selected from an astonishing pool of 5,000 designs that never came to fruition.

The authors, Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin, describe these unbuilt designs as “pure, unadulterated visions” in their introduction. Freed from the constraints of budget and bureaucracy, these concepts represent the unfiltered creativity of their time, shining a light on what could have been, rather than the often compromised realities shaped by financial and political pressures.

Architect Henry Cobb imagined a towering version of the New York Stock Exchange in 1963. He claimed the NYSE was keen on the idea, but it never moved forward. Pei Cobb Freed & Partners

MVRDV’s Peruri 88, planned for Jarkarta, Indonesia, was conceived in 2012 as a skyward neighborhood, featuring residential and office space, cinemas, a wedding chapel, mosque, and parks. Courtesy MVRDV

Parishioners of Hatlehol Church in Norway raised money for decades but did not have enough to fund a new religious home. Courtesy Cornelius Vöge

Many of these ambitious visions were too idealistic to escape the page, reminiscent of the utopian designs from the 1970s that imagined a highly futuristic world. Others fell victim to the unpredictable tides of the global financial market, such as Zaha Hadid’s $100-million Dubai Opera House, which succumbed to the fallout of the Great Recession along with numerous other projects.

Funding challenges stymied several notable initiatives. The sleek New Orleans National Jazz Center, envisioned as a cultural landmark after Hurricane Katrina, never came to fruition, nor did a picturesque church in Ålesund, Norway, whose concrete design was intended to harmonize with the alpine landscape but proved too costly for local donations. Even mundane financial disputes halted progress, as seen with the Las Vegas hotel Xanadu, proposed to revamp the Strip in 1975, but ultimately scrapped due to disagreements over sewer line expenses.

In some instances, the untimely deaths of architects or developers meant that their visionary projects died alongside them. If Polish architect Matthew Nowicki hadn’t perished in a plane crash in 1950, he would have led the transformation of Chandigarh in northern India; instead, Le Corbusier is credited with the city’s master plan. Similarly, in Kenya, Daniel Libeskind’s prehistoric-inspired Ngaren: Museum of Humankind would likely be under construction in the Great Rift Valley had it not been for the passing of project founder Richard Leakey in 2022, which rendered Libeskind’s design incompatible with the new site.

Zaha Hadid’s Stone Towers in Cairo, designed in 2009, were meant to consist of 18 residential buildings and a 5-star hotel, but developers quietly dropped the project. Courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

Seiichi Shirai’s Temple Of Atomic Catastrophes wasn’t taken seriously in 1954, but was lauded as part of the architect’s wider body of work late in his life. Seiichi Shirai/The Shoto Museum

Some of the most remarkable architectural projects have faced rejection due to their designs. Japanese architect Seiichi Shirai envisioned a serene yet somber Temple of Atomic Catastrophes in 1954, aiming for “formal purity” and evoking the shape of a mushroom cloud. Despite being proposed the same year as Kenzo Tange’s Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Shirai’s plans were dismissed at the time, though he later received posthumous recognition when he won the Pritzker Prize.

In recent years, many architectural concepts have drawn criticism online for their aesthetics (think Vessel or the Walkie Talkie) or their names (like PENN15). However, one project sparked conspiracies that ultimately led to its cancellation. In 2011, Rotterdam-based MVRDV issued an apology for their design of a luxury complex in South Korea called The Cloud. With two towering structures connected by cloud-shaped floors, the design was criticized for resembling the World Trade Center enveloped in smoke during the September 11 attacks, resulting in the project being abandoned.