Unbuilt Architecture

In the October 2000 broadcast, Greater Boston Arts looks at a number of unbuilt architectural projects, both contemporary and historical. Projects include the Monument to the Third International designed for the city of St. Petersburg, Russia, North End Traces for Boston's North End, and "Dam" Yankees for New York City. Click on the links below to see descriptions in text and image of these three projects. Texts are excerpted from interview transcripts with MIT Professor Takehiko Nagakura, and architects Paul Lukez, Omar Khan, and Laura Garofalo.

Monument to the Third International by Vladimir Tatlin
"Some of the best buildings in the 20th century architecture history were never built. They exist only as drawings or in the form of models."
- Takehiko Nagakura, Associate Professor of Architecture, MIT

North End Traces by Paul Lukez and Jude Dallaire
"I think a lot of architects do unbuilt projects because they feel very passionate about a certain set of ideas, and they're looking for a canvas, as it were, to explore some of those ideas and notions. It's a way for architects to introduce ideas into the public discussion."
- Paul Lukez, Designer, North End Traces

"Dam" Yankees by Omar Khan and Laura Garofalo
"For those people who feel, 'Well, why are they endeavoring into these kind of speculations when we know that it can't be built?,' I think it's critically important because it makes evident what potential possibilities and potential problems there are. Unless you have something to bounce these things off of we will basically just conform to what we can do."
- Omar Khan, Co-creator, "Dam" Yankees