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Map of T. Kennard Thomson’s proposal to expand the size of New York, from Popular Science, January 1916

Remember the plan to fill in the Hudson River? In 1934, Modern Mechanix reported that Norman Sper, a publicist and engineering scholar, had proposed damming the river on the north and south sides of Manhattan in order to create ten square miles of new land and connect the island with New Jersey.

There were also proposals to reclaim land on the other side of Manhattan.

Map of “New Manhattan,” as proposed by T. Kennard Thomson Metropolis Books

1930 map of “New Manhattan,” as proposed by T. Kennard Thomson (New York Public Library)

The first such plan came from T. Kennard Thomson, an engineer, in 1911. He suggested filling in the East River and extending Manhattan to the south. The Harlem River would be widened and a New East River dug east of Brooklyn to empty in the Jamaica Bay. The Brooklyn Navy Yard, which would lose its access to the sea, was to be relocated to the mouth of the New York Bay.

Like Sper, Thomson recognized that an effort like this would be enormously expensive. But he also foresaw huge rewards, writing in the January 1916 edition of Popular Science that the returns would “quickly pay off the debt incurred, and then would commence to swell the city’s money bags until New York would be the richest city in the world.”

Visualization of John A. Harris’ plan to drain New York’s East River, from Popular Science, December 1924

Thomson revisited his plan in 1930, when it became a little less ambitious. Called “A New Manhattan,” it zeroed in on the idea of extending the island to the south.

In the meantime, somebody else had taken Thomson’s idea to drain the East River and run with it: John A. Harris, deputy police commissioner at the time, proposed in 1924 to transform the waterway into a transportation artery, including roads, subway lines and parking spaces, in order to relief congestion in Manhattan.

Harris envisaged the construction of two dams: one near the Williamsburg Bridge and one near Hell Gate. The riverbed would be “bridged with levels supported by steel uprights,” thereby connecting the boroughs of Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, Popular Science reported that year. Midway along the thoroughfare would be erected an imposing city hall and community center.

“A New Manhattan”: Proposals to Drain the East River Remember the plan to fill in the Hudson River? In 1934, Modern Mechanix reported that Norman Sper, a publicist and engineering scholar, had proposed damming the river on the north and south sides of Manhattan in order to create ten square miles of new land and connect the island with New Jersey.

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Paul Rudolph’s design for New York’s Lower Manhattan Expressway (Library of Congress)

Paul Rudolph’s design for New York’s Lower Manhattan Expressway (Library of Congress)

Paul Rudolph’s design for New York’s Lower Manhattan Expressway (Library of Congress)

Urbanists will be familiar with the history of the Lower Manhattan Expressway. This proposal for an elevated, ten-lane highway through the middle of Lower Manhattan was hugely controversial at the time and shelved in 1968, after years of protest.

Not everyone could let the project go, though. In 1967, the Ford Foundation employed the Brutalist architect Paul Rudolph to reexamine its potential.

Rudolph went way beyond the original plan. He sank the expressway into the ground and added enormous tower complexes on top with connecting monorails between them. Parts of the old city would have disappeared under vast pyramid-shaped, glass-and-concrete monstrosities.

If you want to learn more about the history of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, there is a great article in The New Yorker, here, and a long read at Curbed, here.

#UnbuiltNewYork: Paul Rudolph’s Lower Manhattan Expressway Urbanists will be familiar with the history of the Lower Manhattan Expressway. This proposal for an elevated, ten-lane highway through the middle of Lower Manhattan was hugely controversial at the time and shelved in 1968, after years of protest.

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Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe’s Battery Park Apartments

#UnbuiltNewYork: Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe’s Battery Park Apartments

Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe’s proposed Battery Park Apartments You don’t have to be a fan of Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe’s work to see that his proposal might have been an improvement over the bland, grey and pastel-colored towers that were built on the southeastern tip of Manhattan instead.

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Unbuilt New York: Welfare Island

#UnbuiltNewYork: Welfare Island

Victor Gruen’s plan for Roosevelt Island, New York (Metropolis Books) In the 1950s, what is now Roosevelt Island (named in 1971 after the wartime president) was arguably underused. Nicknamed “Welfare Island” because of the many alms houses, hospitals and even a lunatic asylum that were situated there, it was not considered a pleasant place to live. Victor Gruen, an Austrian-born architect known…

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Unbuilt New York: National American Indian Memorial

#UnbuiltNewYork: National American Indian Memorial

Proposed National American Indian Memorial in New York City (Queens Museum) The National American Indian Memorial was a proposed monument to Native Americans to be built on the site of Fort Tompkins in Staten Island, near the entrance to New York Harbor. The project was the brainchild of Rodman Wanamaker, a department store magnate and patron of the arts. Congress set aside the federal land…

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Design for New York’s Grand Central Station by the firm McKim, Mead and White

Design for New York’s Grand Central Station by the firm Reed and Stem

Design for New York’s Grand Central Station by the firm McKim, Mead and White

Design for New York’s Grand Central Station by Samuel Huckel Jr.

Between 1903 and 1913, New York’s Grand Central Station was torn down and replaced in phases by a Grand Central Terminal — still called “Grand Central Station” by most New Yorkers. Out of the many firms that vied to design the new railway station, two were selected: Reed and Stem of St. Paul, Minnesota, who were responsible for the overall design, and Warren and Wetmore of New York, who were responsible for the building’s Beaux-Arts style.

Other firms had different ideas.

McKim, Mead and White, who would later build the old Penn Station as well as the campus of Columbia University in Manhattan, proposed a sixty-story skyscraper, which would have been the tallest tower in the world at the time.

Samuel Huckle Jr. of Pennsylvania called for a baroque turreted building.

Reed and Stem, who would go on to design many more train stations across the United States, originally placed a wide courtyard in front of Grand Central that was never built.

#UnbuiltNewYork: The Grand Centrals That Could Have Been Between 1903 and 1913, New York’s Grand Central Station was torn down and replaced in phases by a Grand Central Terminal – still called “Grand Central Station” by most New Yorkers.

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Filling in the Hudson to Rebuild New York

An airship hovers over Manhattan, New York. From Modern Mechanix, March 1934 In March 1934, Modern Mechanix reported on a plan to fill in the Hudson River and connect the island of Manhattan with New Jersey. The plan, proposed by publicist and engineering scholar Norman Sper, involved damming the Hudson River on the north and south sides of Manhattan and widening the Harlem River in order to…

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