Greg Goldin

Never Built New York, which presents nearly 200 ambitious architectural projects proposed for New York City (largely in Manhattan, though also including the outer boroughs) which were never built, is a brilliantly executed book. The authors present a wide range of projects: skyscrapers, bridges, mass-transit plans, parks, streets and highways, airports, museums, amusements, theaters, stadia, and much more. The book is lavishly illustrated with rare sketches, prints, and conceptual models; and the text is bright, flowing, and highly engaging. Authors Greg Goldin and Sam Lubell tell the stories of these projects with crisp and clear language that steers clear of technical jargon, and instead presents the architectural details in a nuanced and beautifully descriptive manner. In this way, the text serves to breathe life into the illustrations. Daniel Libeskind's wise and thoughtful foreword notes that, though these projects may never have been built, the architecture still lives in its drawings, like music lives on simply by its written score without need for a physical performance.

The book will be especially apealing to those familiar with New York City's skyline, its roads, bridges, and landmarks. But for the timing of some of these projects (on the cusp of economic downturn), or other circumstances, such as political agendas (or in one instance, the failure to bribe the Albany Public Service Commission Chairman), the city's landscape might today look somewhat different.… (meer)