Architecture That Never Was
Readers of Off the Grid should be familiar with the many preservation victories Greenwich Village has won over the years, including the extension of Fifth Avenue through Washington Square Park, urban renewal high-rises in the Far West Village, and Westway, a highway meant to replace the crumbling west side elevated highway which closed in 1973. So we were interested to see this blog post on Flavorwire about strange development plans that have not succeeded in New York City.
With Grand Central—one of New York City’s most iconic landmarks—celebrating its 100th anniversary this February, perhaps the most timely entry in this post is the 1956 plan to raze the building for an 80-story cylindrical glass tower.
Equally horrific plans, such as 100-story buildings in the shape of nuclear power cooling towers for Harlem and connecting New York and New Jersey by filling in ten square miles of the Hudson River, can be found here.