The rise and fall of Pennsylvania Station: Beaux Arts masterpiece to modern demolition

Penn Station, New York City

The present Madison Square Gardens/Pennsylvania Station that we see on the East side of Manhattan at 8th Avenue and 31st Street is not the first building built on that location. Until 1910, the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) only went as far as New Jersey. Passengers had to disembark on the west side of the Hudson and find a way into Manhattan if they wanted to continue into the City. In 1901 the PRR president, Alexander Cassatt, decided to build a tunnel under the Hudson River from New Jersey and construct a beautiful Beaux Arts-style terminal designed by McKim, Mead, and White. Named for the Pennsylvania Railroad, the structure called Pennsylvania Station, when it was finished in 1916, was considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.

Like some vast basilica of old," above-ground, the building housed the largest indoor public space in the world, with ticket windows, waiting rooms and offices around enormous rooms. The ceilings were 150 feet high arches, modeled after the Roman Baths of Caracalla; tall windows allowed plenty of light; the pink granite columns and marble floors rivaled the greatest cathedrals of Europe, and carvings by famous artists graced every available nook and cranny. The total cost was $114 million in 1910 dollars. The designers made a mistake, however, when they decided not to include multi-storied office buildings as part of the complex design, as this might have saved the building.

Below ground were the tracks for the electrified passenger rail line going north to Boston and south to Washington, D.C., by going west under the Hudson. The station was one of the main terminals on the Northeast Corridor and was immediately a major hub for commuter rail lines. Though the tracks and underground area were still being used in 1964, with passenger use dropping, the high maintenance costs of such a large structure forced city planners to demolish the station and put another in its place which would serve the City in a different way. The original building was only 53 years old when it was torn down. Madison Square Gardens, a circular, indoor stadium and adjoining high rise, were built during the 1960s.

The tearing down of such a grand, old, majestic building caused a furor among architects and admirers of architecture and fine art. Most of the columns and sculptures that had graced the roof and indoor public spaces were thrown into the landfill, though a few were saved. Fourteen of the original twenty-two eagles that sat atop the station, carved out of stone by artist Adolph a. Weinman, still exist, but only three reside in New York City.

Goals of the Project

The new Moynihan/Penn Station project design is a drastic change from the current structure on the property at the corner of 31st and 8th Avenue (See below).

(Photo copied from the Gothamist, 23 Oct 2007)

Aesthetically, it will reflect the older Penn Station in its facade. A "train hall" lit by skylights and surrounded by retail space will fill its interior. Two towers, one taller than the Empire State Building, will flank it, one containing two million square feet of floor space and the other containing one million square feet. Plans to reconstruct the Hotel Pennsylvania across the street will add to the neighborhood. Socially, the new Moynihan/Penn Station Building will be more desirable. With an inviting "mall" interior, it will serve the purposes of a meeting, eating and shopping marketplace, as well as a train terminal for the railroad still running beneath it. Economically, it will complement the area of the City in which it resides, which is currently developing, with the Hudson Yards nearby on its west side. Politically, the Municipal Arts Society is keeping track of any developments in the project, and with the rezoning of the surrounding area to residential and commercial, the Spitzer administration appears to be promising a bright future to the dilapidated Madison Square Gardens property, along with that of the old Post Office building nearby. The state bought both properties five years ago and has worked with the Regional Plan Association to develop plans pleasing to everyone over the past five years.

Did Penn Station succeed or fail?

The original Penn Station actually failed in its purpose, as the needs of the traveling public changed. The building, built as a monument to the train and commuter rail traffic, was outdated as transportation evolved. It may have been a success as a monument and as grand Beaux Arts architecture, but as a practical use of space in a city jealous of every square foot, it was almost a waste. Vast empty waiting rooms and spaces taller than they were wide made those who had tiny, crowded offices think that the space could have been put to better use. The neighborhood was in decline and surrounding structures and activities did not mesh well with a train station. Somehow Penn Station was never incorporated into its milieu on the west side as Grand Central Terminal was on the east side. Pen Station had become a grand, old hulk of a building that housed nothing and was expensive to keep up.

Unfortunately, it was a beautiful space which had been designed at the end of an era. It was the crowning project of a famous architectural firm designing it for a use that was near the end of its term. When it did not serve the public any longer, the City fathers decided they needed an attraction which would bring people into town, something big that would bring money to Manhattan and would serve the needs of a sports-hungry public. Thus Madison Square Gardens became 75% owner of the property and the PRR only retained 25%.

Comparing Grand Central Station and Penn Station.

Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station are the two busiest stations in the United States. With buses, railroads and subways coming into, leaving and traveling between both stations, the two stations serve as a double hub for the City of New York.

Grand Central Terminal is a very well used and redesigned building which has found its main usefulness is in maintaining local passenger commuter rails. it, too, has large columns on its facade, ornate stone carvings (by Whitney Warren) on its roof and inside, brass and marble rails and floors, similar in style to the old Penn Station.

Though its construction was begun ten years before Penn Station's, it was completed only three years before Penn Station. it, too, has the rails coming in beneath the fine, old Beaux Arts building, for which tunnels beneath the city were built, removing millions of cubic yards of earth. it, too, heralded and celebrated the new, electric railroad track with its electrified third rail fueling the engines without smoke or fire.

Grand Central Terminal was renovated in the 1990s to make way for modern shops, with better lighting, wider steps and platforms big enough to accommodate the burgeoning subway and commuter train system. Though it became dark and dirty throughout the 1970s and 1980s, falling into disrepair and misuse, in the 1990s it was renovated in a 4-year effort and now appears clean and new. For some reason, the loss of passenger traffic on the railroad during the 1960s did not affect Grand Central as much as it did Penn Station. Perhaps it was because Grand Central had a champion in Jacqueline Kennedy, who declared it a landmark in the 1960s.

Re-imagining Penn Station

When one wants to design a building to replace a useless structure which has replaced a grand old monument, what does one imagine? The original building can be the inspiration for a new, more useful structure to fill the space where the older buildings failed.

When the architects for the new Moynihan/Penn Station project were hired, they were inspired by the public, Moynihan and by their respect for the historical building which had once stood on that property, to recreate it. The only problem is that a train station today has a lot of traffic, and as gas prices soar, more and more people are using public transportation for long as well as short trips, traffic in and out of a train station is going to increase.

Unless the planners are extremely farsighted, they may neglect to account for an increase in public transportation which will demand (again) a large train terminal with ready access to tickets and the tracks beneath the ground. If the old post office is used for a terminal, it may not be sufficiently large enough to accommodate the crowds. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Penn Station could be recreated exactly as it was, perhaps with the addition of shops and concourses inspired by some of the better contemporary malls, to serve the original purpose of Pennsylvania Station? The new site can and will contain the two skyscrapers housing offices, and, with the addition of residential property nearby, the neighborhood will thrive.

Pennsylvania Station

The Pennsylvania Station in New York

Is like some vast basilica of old

That towers above the terror of the dark

As bulwark and protection to the soul.

Now people who are hurrying alone

And those who come in crowds from far away Pass through this great concourse of steel and stone

To trains, or else from trains out into day.

And as in great basilicas of old

The search was ever for a dream of God,

So here the search is still within each soul

Some seed to find to root in earthly so,

Some seed to find that sprouts a holy tree

To glorify the earth - and you - and me.

Langston Hughes.