4. There Was Almost A Different Municipal Building
When McKim, Mead and White entered the competition to design the Municipal Building, the firm had never designed a skyscraper. Several designs for new municipal buildings were proposed during this time, including a 1960s idea (see above) which would have led to the demolition of landmarked Surrogate’s Courthouse, Tweed Courthouse, Emigrant Savings Bank, and the New York Sun (A.T. Steward Department Store) buildings.
See more never built buildings in Lower Manhattan here.