Penn Station, New York City

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.

Who uses Penn Station (Comparing past, present and future)

When the original building was in its heyday, from 1910 through 1964, hundreds of trains departed the station daily, going not only to local areas around Manhattan, but to Chicago, Miami and west to St. Louis and beyond. Many different railroads besides the PRR used its tracks and so thousands upon thousands of people arrived and left the City from Penn Station. The peak of its use came during World War I, as soldiers were sent by train from everywhere to be shipped off to war.

However, beginning in the 1950s, when jet airplanes became popular and reasonably priced to travel in and the growing Interstate Highway System allowed thousands to motor across the country in their cars, the volume of passengers using the train declined significantly.

It was then that the city fathers decided that the original structure was no longer needed and tore it down to make way for Madison Square Gardens. The new arena was spectacular in its own right, with all of the modern technology of the day going into its creation, as the arena was floated over the railroad tracks in the hole created by the destruction of Penn Station. With bleachers which floated on air to create either a large soccer stadium or a small boxing ring, with no interfering supporting columns, the circular stadium it was a miracle of engineering in the middle of a bustling city. Madison Square Gardens hosted hundreds of events yearly and was a popular entertainment site for sports and entertainment fans. With the building fading and the crowds diminishing, parts of Madison Square Gardens and the train entrances are now moving to the James a. Farley Post Office building and therefore a change of roles is due again for the Penn Station property.

The future of the property, with its structure reminiscent of the original Penn Station, appears promising. With a projected cost of $14 billion, the "project" seems to be growing every day, now involving six city blocks adjacent to the original property, and 10 million square feet of new office space. It will involve housing, shopping, entertainment, the train station, and office buildings. Stephen M. Ross and Steven Roth are the developers and plan to name it after Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who had the original idea and has championed the redevelopment and return to the original design. Moynihan is quoted as saying that Penn Station was torn down "mindlessly... How could we do that? We now have an opportunity to recreate the building."

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.