Penn Station is much more than a transportation center. As the heart of the Northeast Corridor rail system, it has the potential to link downtown to downtown along the Eastern Seaboard in a way far more economical, expedient and environmentally sustainable than air travel.
But while the governor’s recently announced plan is a step toward this goal, more must be done. What we propose in addition is a completely new commuter station on the site of Madison Square Garden
— nytimes.com
The proposed plan for Penn Station's redesign comes by way of Vishaan Chakrabarti, founder of the Practice for Architecture and Urbanism. Previously, Chakrabarti was the director of Manhattan's Department of City Planning under former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, where he also oversaw prior refurbishment plans for the station.
Previously, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo had released a plan to bring Penn Station up to speed (it was designed for a third of its current 650,000 daily commuters). But while the Governor's plan, headed by SOM, is focused mostly on utility, Chakrabarti's plan (as he writes for The Times) aims to provide the city with a grand public space—by physically relocating Madison Square Garden (an idea that has been floated before) to honor the original station's legacy where travelers "entered the city like a god".
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3 Comments
I have my own MSG-killing, stip mall looking proposal for Penn Station and some renderings, does the NYTimes take cash or credit?
The old Penn Station was designed by McKim Mead and White. MSG is an expensive, beloved arena that will have to be rebuilt (not so easy as this claims). Take a good look at it, because whatever new ideas have to stand on their own merits, and their own dubious $$ aims, and shady media benefactors.
Looks like PAU took SHoPs plan, lowballed it by taking everything out (unrealistic), then sold it to anti-architect Kimmelman for co-credit
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