Gigantic, Never Built Dock Buildings Along The Hudson
Originally this illustration appeared in the January 26, 1922 issue of The New York Times Mid-Week Pictorial magazine. We colorized this birdseye view of The Battery showing lower Manhattan crowded with ships and skyscraper buildings.
It also shows something that never came to be.
On the left is a series of uniform buildings stretching along the Hudson River waterfront. Today this area is the site of Battery Park City.
The Times description of the illustration says this view shows “a system of docks proposed in the designs submitted by Joseph Miller Huston, a Philadelphia architect. The docks would really be great loft, factory or office buildings and the ships would thus be at their very doors, saving time, labor and trucking charges.”
Editorializing the Times continued, “There is a crying need for greater dock facilities. In order to take full advantage of the magnificent possibilities of one of the greatest harbors in the world, and while no definite plans have been adopted, the Port of New York Authority is giving earnest attention to the matter of port development.”
Joseph Huston Miller
Joseph Miller Huston (1866-1940) was the architect of the Pennsylvania State Capitol (1902-1906). This grand building would lead to Huston’s downfall. Huston was made the scapegoat and go to prison on a charge of conspiracy to cheat and defraud the Commonwealth, in the “Pennsylvania State Capitol Graft Scandal.”
Huston served a six month sentence at Eastern State Penitentiary in 1911. After Huston’s prison stint his architectural career was essentially over.
How did Huston’s New York dock proposal come to the attention of the Times or Port of New York Authority?
Searching news, architectural and city periodicals of the era, there are no other mentions or details of Huston’s dock plans.
This is a case where not building was certainly the right choice. If Huston’s buildings had been constructed, they would have become outmoded with the decline of Manhattan as a shipping port. 
January 26, 1922 New York Times Mid-Week Pictorial Huston Dock original article and illustration
