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Portland State University and the surrounding area would look a lot different if some of the school’s original architects, designers and engineers had their way.

The 1966 master plan for the campus included sky bridges connecting buildings and even one building stretching across Interstate 405.

鈥�(The plan) included a big science building in the center of campus, and there is a facility that draped across 405 that you could partially see through,鈥� said Bryce Henry, archivist for capital projects and construction at PSU. 鈥淭here is not a lot of explanation for it 鈥� not sure what they were thinking there.鈥�

Those plans are now on display at the PSU Library as part of an exhibit that also includes drawings, site plans and documentation for many complexes never built.

Henry’s student assistant Madelyn Miller was in charge of picking many of the documents.

鈥淎s I was working on it I became more interested in the idea of what campus could have looked like and how those never-built projects inform the values of the institution,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 focused on the ones that I found most interesting or most ridiculous.鈥�

One such project was to build the Ondine Observatory in the middle of a downtown campus surrounded by city lights. This plan, initiated in 1998, was PSU’s second bid for an observatory; the first popped up in the 1960s and would’ve included a telescope.

鈥淭he plan was that it would introduce undergrads to working with the telescope,鈥� Henry said. 鈥淚 think the actors were totally unrelated and totally unaware of each other’s plans. These two groups just thought it was a good idea.鈥�

The latter plan almost came to fruition. PSU officials secured building permits and actually purchased the dome and the telescope. But then the dome’s manufacturer delayed delivery and permits for the project expired. The cost of securing new permits, along with logistical problems tied to the dome led to it and the telescope being first relegated to the basement of PSU’s Science Building 1 before eventual relocation to Pine Mountain Observatory in Central Oregon.

Another PSU project that came close to reality was the Student Housing and Elementary School (SHES) project. The proposal, from the 1960s, was for an L-shaped complex of three buildings.

鈥淚t was supposed to add additional student housing as well as a Portland State elementary school, which seems like such a weird idea,鈥� Henry said. 鈥淏ut of any of these projects, it was probably the closest that came to actually happening. It’s a competition between that and the telescope for which was closer to happening.鈥�

Like many of the plans that weren’t realized, funding was the primary hurdle. Portland Public Schools didn’t have money for a new elementary school.

Other ideas, like a proposed assisted living center at Southwest Fourth Avenue and Montgomery Street, were more questionable. Some documents even fail to reveal how PSU was involved in plans for its own campus.

鈥淚’m not sure how involved the school was on that one,鈥� Henry said. 鈥淪ome of the stuff we didn’t have context for.鈥�

Other projects would have taken PSU facilities in entirely different directions. There were plans to include a television studio behind the Parkmill Building to work with the communications department. In the 1960s, plans called for construction of a multimodal recreation center with large, movable seating blocks.

Another idea would have included enormous parking facilities on property now occupied by campus buildings and green space.

鈥淭hings like that that would have totally changed Portland State,鈥� Henry said.

Although the projects in the exhibit never materialized, Miller said she appreciates their origins.

鈥淚t’s good to know that there are some people that are very ambitious and excited about improving the campus,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hese projects were aimed at improving the student experience. It’s also kind of cool to think I could have been looking through a telescope.鈥�

If you go

What: 鈥淣ever Built: the Past Future of Portland State鈥�

Where: Portland State University Library first-floor lobby

When: now through March 19

More information: http://library.pdx.edu/news/past-future-portland-state/