A tour of new Penn Station – David Brussat

by David Brussat, Architecture Here and There, contributing writer

Photo: The Main Waiting Room, as proposed, of the rebuilt Pennsylvania Station. (ReThinkNYC)

It remains possible that the Pennsylvania Station completed in 1910 and infamously demolished in 1963 – “We once entered the city like gods, now we scuttle in like rats” (Vincent Scully) – will be rebuilt to its original design by James Follen McKim of McKim, Mead & White.

The new station would substantially resemble the old one, but the design of the old station would be slightly changed to accommodate differences in the way people live today – for example, pedestrian ramps with outdoor dining instead of automobile ramps carrying vehicles around the building, and a revitalized retail arcade between Seventh Avenue and the Main Waiting Room. The new station would fit into an existing panoply of McKim, Mead & White buildings, including the Amtrak Train Hall (the old Farley Post Office) and the Hotel Pennsylvania, the latter now being illegally demolished by the evil Vornado Real Estate Trust, which should be forced to pay to rebuild the hotel if its demolition cannot be stopped in time.

ReThinkNYC, under the direction of Sam Turvey, has assembled an admirable collection of recent images to display the virtuosity of a new Penn Station, if it is rebuilt. The images by Jeffrey Stikeman, Richard Cameron of Atelier & Co., and Nova Concepts, including a digital reproduction of the Main Waiting Room, which Thomas Wolfe described as “vast enough to hold the sound of time.”

Each image is accompanied by a vivid caption that orients the reader within the station complex.

Before this all can be accomplished, however, New Yorkers must halt the existing plan of New York Gov. Hochul to slightly modify the station, squashed down by Madison Square Garden, and surrounded by a phalanx of super-tall, super-ugly, super-empty new towers, the absent market for space in which has rattled even the cold-blooded Vornado criminals. More urban renewal: that’s what New York City needs!

But ultimately the people of the world’s city will make their feelings known. And then the gate will open to an unexpected resurgence of beauty and prosperity. The whole world will be impressed by what New York can do. Click here to see how it will look.

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To read other articles by David Brussat: https://rinewstoday.com/david-brussat-contributing-writer/

My freelance writing and editing on architecture and others addresses issues of design and culture locally and globally. I am a member of the board of the New England chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, which bestowed an Arthur Ross Award on me in 2002. I work from Providence, R.I., where I live with my wife Victoria, my son Billy and our cat, Gato. If you would like to employ my writing and editing to improve your work, please email me at my consultancy, [email protected], or call (401) 351-0451