In the center of Chicago lies a crater almost 23 meters deep, the result of a never-realized project: the Chicago Spire, envisioned by Santiago Calatrava, which was supposed to become the tallest skyscraper in the United States.
History is full of particularly fascinating architectural projects that were never built. Let’s look at some of the most interesting ones:
1. Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Illinois, a skyscraper that, if built, would have been the tallest building in the world. At a height of one mile (1,609 meters), it would have been twice as tall as the current record holder, the 828-meter Burj Khalifa;
2. Norman Foster designed an X-shaped airport for the new hub in Mexico City. The project, valued at $4 billion (approximately €3.9 billion), was destined to become the second-largest airport in the world;
3. The Burj Al Alam in Dubai, or World Tower, was planned as a skyscraper 510 meters tall. If completed, the building would have housed 76 floors, including offices, a commercial area, apartments, and a luxury hotel occupying the top 34 floors;
4. Due to a dispute between developers and local authorities in Mumbai, India, the construction of a 718-meter tower was canceled in 2011. The Indian Tower would have housed residential and commercial spaces, as well as a hotel;
5. The oldest project on this list is the Cenotaph for Isaac Newton, designed by Étienne-Louis Boullée. This funerary monument is an icon of visionary architecture, characterized by a 150-meter-high sphere set into a circular base. Although the structure was never built, the original drawings are preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
