{"id":9612,"date":"2026-06-18T10:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T10:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/angesfinanciers.org\/?p=9612"},"modified":"2026-06-19T15:12:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T15:12:55","slug":"gaudis-ghost-of-an-alternative-new-york-visualised-by-ai-artist-thierry-lechanteur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/2026\/06\/18\/gaudis-ghost-of-an-alternative-new-york-visualised-by-ai-artist-thierry-lechanteur\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaud\u00ed’s “ghost of an alternative New York” visualised by AI artist Thierry Lechanteur"},"content":{"rendered":"
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AI<\/a> artist Thierry Lechanteur has transformed a speculative design by Antoni Gaud\u00ed<\/a> for a supertall<\/a> hotel in New York into a series of digital renders<\/a>, featured as part of our Gaud\u00ed Centenary series<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Currently gaining traction online, the visuals recreate what Belgian artist Lechanteur<\/a> described as “one of [Gaud\u00ed’s] most fascinating projects” to mark the centenary of the architect’s death.<\/p>\n

The monumental hotel design, named Hotel Attraction, was developed in 1908 for a pair of unknown businessmen, but was never realised.<\/p>\n

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Thierry Lechanteur has created digital renders of a speculative design by Antoni Gaud\u00ed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gaud\u00ed’s proposal consisted of a cluster of nine skyscrapers peaking at 360 metres on an unspecified site in Lower Manhattan. Today, the closest we will see to the real building is in models and digital visuals such as Lechanteur’s.<\/p>\n

The images have been widely shared on Instagram<\/a> since Lechanteur posted them earlier this month, representing what the artist called “a nostalgia for a future that never happened”.<\/p>\n

“My work revisits architectural heritage through visual fictions,” Lechanteur told Dezeen.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Analog Architecture Drawings (@analog_architecture_drawings)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nGaud\u00ed designed the building in 1908<\/em><\/p>\n

“For the centenary of Gaud\u00ed’s death, I wanted to extend his dream rather than reconstruct his drawings: a free interpretation of the tower he imagined for New York, grown from his architectural vocabulary rather than from any single document,” Lechanteur continued.<\/p>\n

“I think people are moved by architecture that almost existed: the Hotel Attraction is a ghost of an alternative New York, and seeing it rendered touches something like nostalgia for a future that never happened. And in a skyline of glass and steel, a 360-metre tower of colour and curves feels almost transgressive today, perhaps even more than in 1908.”<\/p>\n

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The building would have been formed of a cluster of towers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gaud\u00ed’s designs for Hotel Attraction remained little known until they were published by his collaborator Joan Matamala i Flotats in 1956, in the report titled When the New World Called Gaud\u00ed.<\/p>\n

The designs were once again publicised in 2003<\/a>, when they were submitted as an entry to the international memorial competition for the redesign of the World Trade Center site by a group of art historians.<\/p>\n

It is believed Gaud\u00ed was commissioned for the design in 1908 by two American businessmen. Alongside the hotel, it would have contained a theatre, gallery, restaurants and a viewpoint at its peak called the Space Tower.<\/p>\n