I still visit this forum because lots of people contribute great photos, renders, info, and discussion. But jeez, it’s getting harder to sort the wheat from the chaff. I’m tired of having to wade through so much nonsense caused by one user to find the posts from valuable contributors.
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Agreed. When I see 10+ notifications from a thread, I thought there was some good news. But instead it’s just this one person who wants to spur unnecessary nonsense.
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Built vs unbuilt. Not that hard. Maybe a language barrier?
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I already said that…
my english is not good.
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IBM Building under construction 1980
Collection by Miss Mackensen
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880 foot original design to compare
Mellon Bank Center, Philadelphia. Thanks for the book recommendation @Mackensen
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A few extras
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Early Four Union Center tower
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Four First Union Center, 1000 feet, 80 stories, and unbuilt
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Yes, I read the book during my lunch break, but I didn’t know that there was also an English version.
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I actually bought the German version lol, also came straight from Germany. Looks like I gotta learn a language now lol
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Ich muss dir aber sagen, deutsch ist manchmal eine schwere Sprache. 
Last year I had read the following book during my lunch break.
English title: „High Rise“
„ The bow tie is tied: The striking element, the triangular protrusion was initially a vertical billboard, the „node“ at the intersection of Broadway/7th Ave.
As planning progressed, it grew taller and taller until it spanned the entire building (center). From the latticework (bottom), a short path led to the idea of incorporating the projection into the building itself (center).“
1540 Broadway Renderings and model by SOM
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Dang I remember checking out that book on 1540 Broadway from the local library just for the pictures. I think was in 6th grade lol.
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I found an article which includes these really interesting models of the Metropolitan Life North Building dating from 1929-- an amazingly clear look at the original visionary designs!
Caption for the second image from the website:
Theodore Conrad (1910–1994), model of the winning design for the Metropolitan Life North Building, c. 1929.
This seems to imply that MetLife planned to go ahead with asymmetrical, squared design in 1929 rather than the more well known, ESB-like massing.
A further model of the eventual 28 storey MetLife North Building:
The book that these are from seems like it would be particularly interesting to some forumers here:
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Very nice finds!
The first image shows the original/initial design that I would’ve liked most. I have seen renders of the 2nd one but they are normally symmetric and not one sided as the wooden model depicts, I also wonder why the bottom part of it is as such and wonder maybe that used to be a second part that was lost.
Kind of always disappointed seeing the initial design compared to what was built and not necessarily the cut aspect of it. The original design had such an imposing Art Deco styled entrance.
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The initial design would have been absolutely unreal-- that soaring Art Deco base, and a glass-clad supertall as early as the 1930s!
As far as period renderings go, I’ve only been able to find the one well-known drawing of the glass-clad symmetrical massing, and one rendering of the stone-clad asymmetrical design. I can only presume that the extant base was designed to support the asymmetrical tower, but it would be interesting to see if there were a version of the symmetrical massing with the stone facade.
I found another Drawing Matter article which includes some photographs of the original model with the missing section, showing the double-barreled extant base and the single-barreled tower:
(This article is also a fascinating look into pre-digital photomontage techniques!)
This is the other rendering I know of, presumably rendered over the end result of the photomontage in that article:
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That’s a good point! I guess I hadn’t noticed that that boxy version was symmetric because that is the render I was refering to. That surely is interesting and you seem correct to imagine that what was built is the lower portion of what would’ve been the boxy version.
This means that the original glass clad iteration, which as you said would’ve been stunning in the 1930s and way before it’s time, is the only iteration that was ever symmetric and people just assume that because the current one “is” symmetric that it wouldve been symmetric all the way up, which as the drawings and model show, was not the case.
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I love seeing those slides! Even though I’ve always thought this is how old renderings were done, it’s awesome to see the layers! Fantastic find!
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