Parallel universe: tracing New York’s unbuilt history
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- Sign up to our newsletter Newsletter

A new edition from Metropolis Books, Never Built New York explores what the Big Apple might look like in an alternative universe of unbuilt projects. Through sketches, renderings, prints and models, co-authors Greg Goldin and Sam Lubell tell the stories of nearly 200 projects proposed by architects over the last two centuries. More than just failed plans, the unrealised buildings make us question how the urban environment effects how we live today.
In the foreword to the book, Daniel Libeskind compares architects to composers, seeing their drawings as scores hidden in the back of drawers; never played yet laden with genius. The book shows architects as idealistic, yet often unrealistic dreamers; the Skyscraper Bridges of Raymond Hood emerge eerily from their pencil sketches and R Buckminster Fuller’s glass dome over Manhattan, half a mile in diameter, looks positively futuristic.
Moshe Safdie’s Habitat was a modular housing community proposed in 1968 to prevent middle class residents moving to the suburbs
Many of these radical plans looked to solve problems that still haven’t been tackled. William Zeckendorf’s floating airport, designed in 1945 in an attempt to reduce air-travel time, rose 200 ft above street level on steel columns with elevators rising from runways; while Robert Moses’ 1949 expressway, planned to combat congestion through a six lane path, sat ten floors above the street.
Many of the plans would replace the structures which define New York today. What if the High Line didn’t exist and Steven Holl’s 1980 Bridge of Houses existed instead? There'd be a housing system combining studios for the city’s homeless with luxury apartments, devised to reuse space and solve social problems.
Other designs feel like a great loss to New York. Moshe Safdie’s triangular patterned M-shaped Columbus Centre, George Howe and William Lescaze’s blocky, modernist Museum of Modern Art or Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim, which could have landed bang in the middle of Manhattan, could have completely changed our relationship with the city.
Somehow, Goldin and Lubell still manage to tell an architectural history of New York, through economic crises, changing mayors and governments, technological developments and trends – an inverse history of a city that never was.
R Buckminster Fuller's 'Dome over Manhattan', which he nicknamed 'Noah's Ark #2', was devised in 1961 as part of a plan to control temperature in the city and save money on heating and cooling
George Howe and William Lescaze were invited to propose a new design for New York’s MoMA in 1930, but they didn’t get the job
Alfred Ely Beach’s Beach Pneumatic Railway of 1870, which pushed railcars with atmospheric pressure, came close to completion
While Daniel Libeskind’s proposal for the new World Trade Centre was chosen in 2002, this original plan was never realised and a new version redesigned in collaboration with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill’s David Childs came to fruition in 2014
Paul Rudolph’s 1967 City Corridor proposed a megastructure of connecting buildings that would contain a highway running from the Hudson to the East river
William Zeckendorf and Wallace K Harrison’s proposal for the United Nations in 1948
INFORMATION
Never Built New York, $55, published by Metropolis Books. For more information, visit the Artbook website (opens in new tab)
Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.
-
Stanya Kahn’s Frieze Los Angeles commission to unearth the ‘understory’ of human intervention in nature
We speak to multidisciplinary artist Stanya Kahn, whose ‘Understory’ installation will be unveiled at Frieze Los Angeles for the 2023 R.U.in.ART Commission
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
On your marks: the best looking sports watches
Choose the right sports watch for you, for its capabilites or its tools for outdoor adventure, bringing the greatest physical and mental benefits
By Hannah Silver • Published
-
Onitsuka Tiger hosts British artist Michele Fletcher in its in-store gallery
Michele Fletcher is the latest artist to show in Onitsuka Tiger’s open-to-all Tiger Gallery, found within the Japanese brand’s London flagship
By Jack Moss • Published
-
Jackson Hole retreat is conceived as ‘a geologic remnant in the landscape’
ShineMaker Residence is a Jackson Hole retreat tuned to perfection by its authors, CLB Architects and HSH Interiors
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
Hosono House is an urban retreat in the heart of San Francisco
Hosono House by Ryan Leidner Architecture blends minimalism, nature and an awkward plot to craft a modern urban retreat in the middle of San Francisco
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
Architecture books to inspire shelf love
Here at Wallpaper*, we’ve got architecture books piling up; among them, these are the photographic tomes, architects’ monographs and limited editions that we couldn’t resist
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
North Salem Farm updates local vernacular for the 21st century
North Salem Farm by New York-based architecture studio Worrell Yeung offers a new take to the region’s agrarian vernacular for the 21st century
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
Spectacular Wyoming ranch sits within a restored working landscape
This Wyoming ranch by CLB Architects offers a new approach to the Western architectural tradition, combining daring and functional modern design with a welcoming character
By Jonathan Bell • Published
-
Columbia County house combines prefabricated methods with meticulous planning
The House of Courtyards, a new Columbia County house, is a refined living space in the heart of a secluded wooded plot
By Jonathan Bell • Published
-
Cheng+Snyder transforms suburban Californian backlot into flexible home
The Roommate House by Cheng+Snyder in Oakland exemplifies fresh approaches to planning for ever-changing demographics
By Jonathan Bell • Published
-
Stage architecture, from Disney to dance
Clever stage architecture makes or breaks a cultural experience – from Yellow Studio’s set for Disney’s new live-action Beauty and the Beast, to more immersive structures in the genre
By Martha Elliott • Published