Never Built New York, the 2016 book by Greg Goldin and Sam Lubell that explores the many unrealized plans for New York City’s built environment, is on its way to becoming a museum exhibit. In September, the Queens Museum will open a “Never Built New York” exhibit, which will examine some of these (admittedly, slightly outlandish) concepts—Buckminster Fuller’s dome over Manhattan, for example, or I.M. Pei’s nearly 1,500-foot-tall Hyperboloid—in depth.
And now, the museum is asking the public to help make this a reality: a recently-launched Kickstarter, created by the museum in collaboration with the authors, seeks $35,000 to assist with the gallery installation. Even cooler: the curators will install 70 architectural models of these never-built projects on The Panorama of the City of New York, the scale model of the five boroughs that was crafted during the 1964 World’s Fair.
So what are the perks? They’re basically a nerdy New Yorker’s dream: a $75 pledge will let you lease one of the never-built projects, similar to the museum’s Adopt-a-Building program for the Panorama; for $250, you can go on a private, curator-led tour of the exhibit; and high-rollers can spend $1,000 to tour the exhibit by walking on the Panorama itself, which is all kinds of cool. Got $5,000 to spare? You can experience a dinner party with starchitect Daniel Libeskind, who wrote the foreword to the book.
As Lubell notes in a video promoting the campaign, the Panorama functioned as a visual guide to the city for urban planners in the mid-20th-century; with the “Never Built New York” exhibit, he and Goldin hope to bring a fantastical version of the city to life.
“We want to put these bold solutions on display, and show the audience that it’s okay to dream,” says Lubell in the video. And they’re well on their way—as of this writing, the Kickstarter had raised nearly $9,000. If you’re as jazzed about this as we are, take note: You’ve got until June 22 to contribute.
- Never Built New York [Kickstarter]