Greats of the last ten years

(and some that never made it). As we end the first decade of the new millennium, it’s hardly ­surprising to see plenty of lists of the best and worst: films, books, music and ­architecture. Norman Foster’s ­“Gherkin” (30 St Mary Axe in London) comes to mind, as does the world’s tallest building, the SOM-designed Burj Dubai, which is as tall as the Empire State Building with the Chrysler Building on top. Richard Rogers’ Millennium Dome in London makes an appearance in best lists as well as on the website About ­Architecture’s roll call of the ­decade’s “silly structures”, as does Dublin’s ­Monument of Light, aka the Spire. But there’s another list that makes even more interesting reading and that’s the one of buildings that never made it. Here’s where Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Downtown now resides, along with Herzog & de Meuron’s 56 Leonard Street project for Manhattan, above, a crazily, yet ­beautifully stacked glass castle of cantilevered boxes. Work stopped at Leonard Street in ­February 2009. See New York’s examples at curbed.com/tags/top-of-the-aughts, and ponder Irish examples like the U2 tower. Will they yet see the light of day? Maybe in the next decade.
RIGHT 56 Leonard Street, architect’s model © Herzog & de Meuron..