Let public vote on Penn Station – David Brussat

by David Brusat, Architecture Here and There, contributing writer

Rebuilding Pennsylvania Station, built in 1910 and demolished in 1963, is the single act that can best help bring beauty in architecture back to the United States and the rest of the world.

It would directly boost the beauty of the city itself, and as an arrival point for millions of visitors weekly, its accomplishment would inspire cities around the nation and the world to build their own versions of civic beauty. Think of the City Beautiful Movement that was inspired by the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, whose Beaux-Arts design inspired developments over a span of decades that remain the most beautiful parts of many cities in the U.S. and globally.

It is understood that this will be a gigantic undertaking. N.Y. Governor Kathy Hochul has declared that her plan to surround the station with tall office towers, while demolishing the neighborhoods needed to build those buildings, is off the table. Some observers doubt the honesty of her cancellation of the plan (known as the GPP), but the fact of her announcement can take on a life of its own, combined with the post-covid wreckage of the market for office space done by private “work at home” policies.

Now it is time to make sure that New York City authorities give the boot to Madison Square Garden, which pays no taxes, squats atop the station and inhibits any real plan to renovate it, let alone rebuild it as originally designed by McKim, Mead & White. The deal that extended MSG’s lease expired in June, and a new lease of just three years – time enough for MSG to vamoose – is to be voted upon soon.

John Massengale, the chairman of CNU/NYC, the local chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism, and a friend of many years through my role on the board of the Institute of Classical Architecture, has summed up comprehensively and elegantly the status of the project to Rebuild Penn Station, as it has been called. This plan was conceived and carried forward by architect Richard Cameron of Atelier & Co., in NYC, now with the assistance of ReThinkNYC.com and its chairman, Sam Turvey.

The plan to rebuild Penn Station in its original design, with modifications to account for different engineering and commercial conditions that prevail today, is joined by another classical plan to renovate the station in a way that would be quite satisfying to most of a classical bent. It has been proposed by Alexandros Washburn for the Grand Penn Community Alliance. His plan would not rebuild the old station, but would create a train hall reminiscent of the wrought-iron begirdered hall of the original Penn, and add a classical colonnade encompassing the rest of the Penn footprint, enclosing an outdoor park inspired by the redesigned Bryant Park to the rear of the New York Public Library.

(Two other plans are totally inadequate. They are both neo-moderenist plans for minimalist renovation, one generated by former N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and offered by the state’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), and the other offered by an Italian firm, ASTM, whose allure, if any, is largely financial.)

Click here to read David Brussat’s blog, Architecture Here and There, article

Click here to read Massengale’s magnificent article.

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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.