Believe it or not, that amazing glass dome at the top of this post was one of the original plans for LAX. The image is part of a new exhibition at the Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles that offers a hypothetical version of L.A. by collecting a series of scrapped civic projects. The collection includes plans and renderings for everything from transportation systems to parks and building projects, which never made it past the planning phase.

According to the curators, the plans, each presented with the narrative of their creation and reason for eventual demise, would have created a much denser city with clearly defined urban centers instead of the sprawling neighborhoods of present day L.A. The museum also created an iPhone app to guide users to sites of the ill-fated projects. 

"Never Built: Los Angles" is open until October 13. 


 Frank Lloyd Wright's Huntington Hartford Sports Club

Steven Holl's Natural History Museum Addition

The Goodell Monorail


Santa Monica Offshore Freeway


William H. Evans' Tower Of Civilization, 1939