The New York City that Never Was: Part I Buildings

Frontispiece from King’s Dream of New York:

In 1908, Moses King published King’s Dream of New York, which depicted what the city could look like in the future. Illustrated by Harry Pettit, the book portrayed a fantastic future for the city which included the the creation of many levels of roadways and walkways to service the multitude of pedestrians and automobiles that would occupy the future New York. This idea quickly captured the imaginations of architects, planners and engineers. In fact, few people realize that Grand Central Station embodies many of these ideas, with a conduit of traffic wrapping around the second level of the building.

Many such architect dreamers have yearned to leave a lasting mark on New York City. While the lucky few are able to realize their dream, an untold number never get that chance. Some of their plans never saw reality due to red tape or funding issues, while others remained on the drawing board because the city was not ready for their grandiosity. This is the first in a series of articles relating to architectural ideas that never took hold or were never completed in New York City. Presented below, in Part I, is a collection of images that represent New York City buildings that never were. In later articles, we will show you roadways, railways, bridges and universities, that were designed for New York and never constructed.

In 1908, Antoine Gaudi, the Spanish architect best known for his Basilica the Sagrada Famlia in Barcelona, was commissioned by two wealthy American entrepreneurs to design a hotel in New York City. He designed the Hotel Atraccion (Hotel Attraction), which at over 1,000 feet, would have been the tallest building in New York City.

Conceptual sketches by Juan Matemala of the Gaudi hotel :

A rendering of New York City with the Gaudi hotel if it had been built (courtesy of Fringefiles):

In the 1920s, Frank Lloyd Wright was commissioned by the Reverend William Norman Guthrie of St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery to design four residential towers on church-owned land. The buildings would have been located at 2nd Avenue and either 10th or 11th streets, depending on the account. Wright designed four identical thirteen story glass towers. If built, they would have been the first buildings that didn’t need structual steel for support.  The project was scrapped as a result of the Depression.

A rendering of Wright’s proposed glass tower (source: modernmechanix):

An aerial perspective of the proposed towers that is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art                   (Source: MoMA):

In 1929, the Regional Plan Association released its first Regional Plan for New York and its Environs. The plan proposed to demolish the tenements that littered the area and called for the creation of a grand corridor along Chrystie-Forsyth. The Chrystie-Forsyth Parkway was designed to maximize light and air by incorporating low rise buildings, parks, and adequate spaces between the skyscrapers. The parkway was designed with rows of beautifully designed art-deco skyscrapers.

The Chrystie-Forsyth Parkway and its grand Art-Deco buildings (source: nottingham.ac.uk):

In 1923, the Reverend Christian Reisner of the Methodist Church in Washington Heights conceived of a grand church complex to be located at Broadway and West 173rd Street. Reverend Reisner developed a 40-story church which would have contained a 2,000-seat nave, a five-story basement, a swimming pool, a bowling alley, and would have been topped off with a 75-foot-high rotating cross. John D. Rockefeller Jr. donated $100,000 for the church’s construction. Like the other buildings, the Depression stopped Reverend Reisner from realizing his dreams.

The proposed Broadway Temple United Methodist Church:

This proposed Municipal Building from the 1960s would have brought about the demolition of the landmarked Surrogate’s Courthouse, Tweed Courthouse, Emigrant Savings Bank, and the New York Sun (A.T. Steward Department Store) buildings:

Another redevelopment plan for Manhattan’s downtown Civic Center:

Another proposed municipal building that was never built:

John D. Rockefeller Jr. proposed this new civic center which included a space for the Metropolitan Opera. When the stock market crashed the Metropolitan Opera was unable to secure funding for a new building. As a result, Rockefeller redesigned his civic center into the Rockefeller Center we know today:

Joesph Urban submitted this design in 1927 to a competition for a new Metropolitan Opera House. Urban’s design situated the opera house at the base of a skyscraper:

The Grand Central Terminal today we see today was designed by Reed and Stem and Warren and Wetmore, but here is McKim, Mead, and White’s proposed Grand Central Terminal:

Grant’s Tomb was envisioned with a grand staircase leading down to the Hudson River. Today of course, the West Side Highway cuts through this:

This proposed building was entitled “The Fashion Building” and was to be built on Fifth Avenue. It was designed by William Bergen Chalfant for Amos Parrish & Co in 1930:

This 150-story structure would have been known as the Broadway-Church Building, bounded by Broadway, Church, Duane, and Worth Streets:

These are the proposed designs for the Irving Trust Building at 1 Wall Street. The building that was eventually constructed became later the Bank of New York and since 2007 it has been the BNY Mellon Building:

The Barclay-Vesey building, headquarters of the New York Telephone Company, was designed by Ralph Walker of McKenzie, Voorhees & Gmelin, who was strongly influenced by Eero Saarinen in a Mayan-inspired Art Deco style. But this is an alternative design:

Two proposed renderings of the Chrysler Building lack the ornamentation for which the Chrysler Building is now famous:

This design by Emery Roth for the National Penn Colosseum was never built:

A 1920s proposal for Governor’s Island that was never built:

Proposed in 1926, the Larkin Building would have contained 110 stories and was to be located on West 42nd Street (the McGraw Hill Building currently occupies the site):

The Coney Island Globe Tower was conceived of in 1906 as the largest steel structure ever erected. Samuel Friede designed the 700 foot high globe whose 11 floors were to be filled with restaurants, a vaudeville theater, a roller skating rink, a bowling alley, a slot machines, an Aerial Hippodrome, four large circus rings, a ballroom in the world, an observatory, and weather observation station. Public money poured into the project with claims of 100% returns on investments. After two years of almost no construction, the Globe Tower was revealed to be a grand fraud.

An amusement park reminiscent of  Venice was planned for, but never built in, Jamaica Bay:

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