Prudential Insurance had bought the land, on which sat an eight-story building, in 1981. Announced in 1983 for a site on Madison Avenue between 59th and 60th Streets, it was to be called-inevitably-Trump Castle. The project included six cylindrical towers with crenellated tops, spires, and gold-leaf adornment, plus, at street level, a drawbridge and a moat. “Lunacy.” That was real-estate brokers’ contemporaneous description of Trump’s intended follow-up to his flagship Trump Tower, on Fifth Avenue in New York: a 60-story luxury residential complex, designed by the renowned if erratic Philip Johnson to mimic a medieval castle. Herewith, a quick summary of what never happened. His career is marked by plans for major projects that never came to pass-arguably to posterity’s benefit.
The Moscow tower, which at 100 stories would have been the tallest building in Europe, was but the latest attempt by Donald Trump to leave behind a skyline-altering legacy. To hear more feature stories, see our full list or get the Audm iPhone app.
