Launched in Summer 2017 and opened at the Queens Museum in New York City that same September, Never Built New York is a collaborative exhibition curated by authors Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin and produced in part by the GSAPP Fabrication Lab.
Students working with the Fab Lab explored a trove of archival drawings and models of designed-but-never-built projects in the history of NYC, an unrealized but fascinating series of architectural dreams. The project was threefold: 1) forensic reconstruction of digital models from historic drawings, often sketches with minimal information, 2) fabrication of 1:1200 scale models of over 200 buildings and architectural components, 3) installation and activation of the models in the New York City Panorama, a scale model of the entire five boroughs of New York at the Queens Museum.
The Fab Lab’s contributions were featured in the New York Times, Wall St. Journal, and other publications. Students were given the wonderful privilege of walking on the Panorama model, fulfilling many urban planning dreams.
