Ghost Buildings of 1929

[Story]

Sort of a 'neverwhen' view of NYC

When the stock market crashed in October 1929, many ambitious plans that would have changed the face of New York simply vanished.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/realestate/26scapes.html?hpw

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Great thread.


The very first issue of FORTUNE magazine had an article about the skyscrapers of the near future. They were to be faced in bright faience terracotta tiles. Entire skyscrapers were going to be deep red, turquoise blue, jade green or even shades of orange. It would have been amazing ... but the Depression made the cost too high. Here in Los Angeles, only a few of these "color" skyscrapers were built.


One beautiful example here: http://pro.corbis.com/images/AX036204.jpg?size=67&uid={0B3399E4-5298-4FF7-9421-30947403F341}



.

 

[Tomasso]

For every building plan that comes to fruition, twenty fail. Them's facts.

 

[LordBest]

What a splendid building. Pity more skyscrapers weren't being built along those lines today, instead of generic steel and glass phalli.

Great thread.


The very first issue of FORTUNE magazine had an article about the skyscrapers of the near future. They were to be faced in bright faience terracotta tiles. Entire skyscrapers were going to be deep red, turquoise blue, jade green or even shades of orange. It would have been amazing ... but the Depression made the cost too high. Here in Los Angeles, only a few of these "color" skyscrapers were built.


One beautiful example here: http://pro.corbis.com/images/AX036204.jpg?size=67&uid={0B3399E4-5298-4FF7-9421-30947403F341}



.

 

[dhermann1]

I have a book called "King's Views of New York". It's a compendium of tourist brochures produced from around 1899 till about 1913, with pics of New York sights. One page shows the frontespiece from 1906. It has an image of New York of 1930. Lower Manhattan covered with super elaborate 200 and more story buildings, steam trains running from building to building at the 100th floor, and hilarious hybrid airships bumping around the skies.
The caption says "Who knows what posterity may develop?"
I'll try to scan it, it's priceless.
Yes, many amazing projects have been drawn up that never quite made it to realization. Probably luckily.

 

[Fletch]

McGraw-Hill Bldg. (Raymond Hood, 1930)

...was about the only example of that colored-tile façade concept.

The fact that it was green did not cause as much comment as the fact that it was built west of 6th Avenue (330 W. 42nd, between 8th and 9th). Nice companies didn't headquarter over there.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Here's one of only three Los Angeles structures that were faced in black and gold tiles. This was the Richfield Tower, built in 1929 and demolished in the '60s:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/86/GebhardRichfieldBuilding.jpg



.

 

[Tomasso]

faced in black and gold tiles..

I like that look.


The Bryant Park Hotel in Manhattan:

At night:

In dark green and gold



Carbide & Carbon Building in Chicago

- The base is covered in black polished granite, and the tower is a dark green terra cotta accented with gold terra cotta.
- According to legend the building was designed to resemble a dark green champagne bottle.

 

[Fletch]

I like that look.


The Bryant Park Hotel in Manhattan:

Another Hood tour de force. Built as the American-Standard Bldg. (the plumbing fixture people) in 1924 - the shaping and detail are exceedingly forward-looking for that day.

 

[Story]

I have a book called "King's Views of New York". It's a compendium of tourist brochures produced from around 1899 till about 1913, with pics of New York sights. One page shows the frontespiece from 1906. It has an image of New York of 1930. Lower Manhattan covered with super elaborate 200 and more story buildings, steam trains running from building to building at the 100th floor, and hilarious hybrid airships bumping around the skies..

Thanks, I'm going to have to find a copy of that. I became of a fan of SimCity during my last deployment, particularly the myriad permutations of how a city can grow. It'd be pretty amusing to see what Manhattan would look like today (even if it was only a computer SimCity-esque rendering), had all of those still-born ideas actually seen the light of day.

*
Related links
http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?cityID=8
http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=8
If you set the search function in the link above to 'visions' and 'fantasies', you'll get two pages of unique structures. Most are still in the future, but the Art Deco Massing Study
http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=9394
and the Gothic Tower Hotel
http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=35977\
are period.

http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/bu/sk/li/?id=101028&bt=7&ht=2&sro=0
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=hotelattraction-newyorkcity-ny-usa







http://www.greatbuildings.com/types/types/skyscraper.html

 

[tuppence]

Great thread.


The very first issue of FORTUNE magazine had an article about the skyscrapers of the near future. They were to be faced in bright faience terracotta tiles. Entire skyscrapers were going to be deep red, turquoise blue, jade green or even shades of orange. It would have been amazing ... but the Depression made the cost too high. Here in Los Angeles, only a few of these "color" skyscrapers were built.


One beautiful example here: http://pro.corbis.com/images/AX036204.jpg?size=67&uid={0B3399E4-5298-4FF7-9421-30947403F341}



.

That would have been incredible. What a shame we have to put up with all the grey skyscrapers we have today. How depressing.

 

[JimInSoCalif]

For a good part of my life 'sky scrapers' in Los Angeles were limited to 13 stories as I recall. I expect that limit was in the building codes as a result of the 1934 Long Beach earthquake.

I guess engineers learned to build safter tall structures, but we don't have any that rival some of the ones in NYC or Chicago - which is fine with me.