118-Year-Old NYC Skyscraper That Was Never Built Finally Visualized

More than 100 years ago, a famous architect named Antoni Gaudí drew up plans for a giant hotel in New York City — but it was never built. Now, a writer named Daniel Coughlin has created detailed images showing what the building might have looked like, both inside and out. The project is called Hotel Attraction, and it was reportedly planned for Lower Manhattan back in 1908. Coughlin shared his work on his YouTube channel, where he recreates famous buildings that were never finished or built.

Hotel Attraction would have been a truly enormous building. It was planned to rise about 1,181 feet above Lower Manhattan, which would have made it the tallest building in the world for many years. It would have held that record until the Empire State Building was finished in the 1930s. The tower was designed to sit on Church Street, not far from where other well-known buildings stand today.

What made Hotel Attraction special was not just its height — it was what was planned for the inside. Coughlin described the building as 'something between a hotel, cultural complex, vertical city, and secular cathedral.' Visitors would have entered through one of four grand doorways and walked into a richly decorated reception hall that was about 56 feet tall. The walls would have been covered in trencadís, which is the colorful ceramic mosaic tile style that Gaudí was famous for using.

Above the entrance hall, the building was designed as a series of giant themed rooms, each inspired by a different part of the world. The first floor above the lobby was called the America Room. Above that was the Europa Hall, which would have served as a dining room, concert hall, and theater all at once. It featured tall curved windows made of stained glass and ceiling sculptures based on the myth of Europa. Higher floors were devoted to themes from Asia, Australia, and Africa.

The building was much more than just a hotel with bedrooms. Lower sections had apartments where people could live. The middle of the building had museums, theaters, galleries, and spaces for ceremonies and events. Underground floors were planned for kitchens, garages, and storage. Coughlin said the design moved visitors upward from practical, everyday spaces toward grander and more dramatic ones the higher you climbed.

The most jaw-dropping room was near the very top of the tower. Called the Tribute to America Room, it was planned to be about 410 feet tall — taller than many skyscrapers on their own. Inside, there would have been a 33-foot replica of the Statue of Liberty surrounded by sculptures of the Founding Fathers and an American eagle. Coughlin said this room would have felt like entering a cathedral dedicated to America.

The outside of the building also had a remarkable design. The tower would have been covered in trencadís tiles that changed color from bottom to top. At the base, the colors would have been earthy greens and browns, shifting to reds in the middle, and fading into silvers and golds near the top. Coughlin said this color change was meant to represent a journey from the earth up toward the sky and beyond.

The new interest in Hotel Attraction comes at an important time, as this year marks 100 years since Gaudí died on June 10, 1926. His most famous building, the Sagrada Família church in Barcelona, Spain, is still being built today, more than 140 years after work began in 1882. Earlier this year, builders added the upper part of a cross to the top of its Jesus Christ tower, bringing it to nearly 566 feet tall. The church is expected to be fully finished within the next decade.

Coughlin believes that if Hotel Attraction had been built, it could have changed the way New York City looks forever. Instead of the boxy glass towers that fill Manhattan today, the city might have embraced a more flowing, artistic style of skyscraper. He said the hotel would almost certainly be one of New York's most recognizable landmarks if it had survived to today. For now, his detailed visualizations give us the best look yet at what could have been one of the world's most extraordinary buildings.