Archinect - News

Foster + Partners finishes work on revamped Penn Station entrance

2023-11-20T16:49:00-05:00

A dramatic new makeover of Penn Station’s entrance at 7th Avenue and 32nd Street in Manhattan has been completed by Foster + Partners and AECOM for clients Amtrak and the Vornado Realty Trust.

The rebuilding project expands the entrance’s width by 50 percent while making it safer and fully ADA-accessible for 600,000 daily users of what is considered the nation’s busiest train station.

Image: Fernando Sandoval/MW

A new canopy and LED display were constructed at the entryway, which now features a wider staircase, new interior lighting feature, improved elevator access, and an added third escalator for enhanced circulation. Outside sidewalks and the surrounding plaza were also expanded. The project complements part of Vornado and MdeAS Architects’ redevelopment of the adjacent PENN 2 Tower while creating what Amtrak describes as a “sense of place and civic monumentality.”

Image: Fernando Sandoval/MW

In a press statement, Foster + Partners’ Head of Studio, Nigel Dancey, commented: “We h...

The Met's Jhaelen Hernandez-Eli details his work as Vice President of Capital Projects to the New York Times

2023-11-15T19:24:00-05:00

The New York Times recently spoke to Jhaelen Hernandez-Eli about his work as the Vice President of Capital Projects for NYC's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A Harvard GSD alum and former Associate Principal at Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Hernandez-Eli had previously worked in design and construction for the New York City Economic Development Corporation before joining the institution, where he is now responsible for a $2 billion capital improvements initiative that will prove to be one of the defining aspects of Director Max Hollein's tenure.

“The emphasis on environmental performance and dealing with the climate crisis is not separate and apart from the discussion around aesthetics,” Hernandez-Eli told NYT Art & Culture contributor Ted Loos last month. “I think that oftentimes those two things get divorced. You’re either focused on what a thing looks like or how a thing performs. Our argument here is that they’re not mutually exclusive, they’re merged.”

Previously on Archinect: Frida E...

New York City MTA releases 20-Year Needs Assessment plan... sans price tag

2023-10-13T12:06:00-04:00

Some 400 miles of subway tracks, half of Metro-North’s Hudson Line and several Long Island Rail Road stations are in dire need of upgrades to stave off flooding and other extreme weather exacerbated by climate change, the MTA wrote in a report published on Wednesday. The report, called the 20-year needs assessment, is a breakdown of the agency’s $1.5 trillion worth of transit infrastructure, and details which equipment planners believe most urgently needs fixing over the next two decades.

The system, which is now (finally) on a more stable financial track, needs a litany of upgrades over the next two decades, according to the breakdown. A total of 350 of the 493 elevators operated by the MTA will need to be replaced in that timeframe. Another 6,300 rail cars and 100% of all 6,000 city buses will also need to be replaced. (The full assessment can be found here.)

The findings were published in advance of a five-year construction phase that begins in 2025, though an exact price tag for the slate of fixes has yet to be established by the agency.

Another audit from the state comptroller’s office released last week indicated that the MTA has not sufficiently used money from capital improvement projects to mitigate against the effects of climate change, as was made apparent by the September 29 catastrophic rain event.