The Grand Penn Group Alliance (GPCA) introduced its proposal for renovating Penn Station on the New York Historic on Tuesday, March 11, outlining a return to the unique transit hub’s pre-demolition Beaux Arts glory and a complete relocation of Madison Sq. Backyard (MSG), amongst different options.
Led by former New York Metropolis Chief of City Design Alexandros Washburn and funded by the Nationwide Civic Artwork Society (NCAS), a Washington, DC, nonprofit that advocates for classical structure in federal buildings, the proposal seems to construct on President Trump’s push for classical federal structure amid Penn Station’s slow-moving growth plans. Governor Hochul spoke with Trump about allotting federal {dollars} for bettering the station final November after he was elected.
The board of the NCAS, fashioned in 2002, consists of Thomas D. Klingenstein — a far-right political scientist, Trump ally, and board chair of the conservative Claremont Institute assume tank who poured over $10.5 million in contributions to Republican campaigns and PACs throughout the 2024 election season.
A public plaza with a fountain would substitute Madison Sq. Backyard, which might be moved to the place Resort Pennsylvania as soon as stood.
The renderings launched by the Grand Penn Group Alliance present a classical façade lined with Doric columns in entrance of Vornado Realty Belief’s PENN 2 enterprise heart on the station’s Seventh Avenue entrance. GPCA’s proposal would additionally degree the contentious Madison Sq. Backyard’s round fashionable structure completely to make method for a grassy public plaza that’s roughly the dimensions of Bryant Park and accessorized by a fountain.
Regardless of being probably the most well-known leisure and sports activities venue on the earth, MSG sparked worldwide outrage for its position within the demolition of the unique Beaux Arts-style Penn Station’s quarters in 1963. Loathed by many, the venue that opened in 1968 pressured the station to depend on its underground core, prompting structure historian Vincent Scully to remark that “One entered the city like a god. One scuttles in now like a rat.”
In an interview with Hyperallergic, NCAS President Justin Shubow recalled that late New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan known as the unique station’s demolition “the greatest single act of vandalism in the history of New York.”
The commuter corridor evokes the aesthetics of the unique Penn Station, full with a duplicate of the big clock.
In 2013, the Manhattan Group Board 5 voted to impose a 10-year time restrict on the world’s working allow relatively than permitting it to run in perpetuity. A number of structure companies proposed the relocation of the venue in bids to renovate and develop Penn Station, and in 2023, the identical neighborhood board solely afforded MSG a five-year working allow, closing in on the location’s eventual relocation for the station’s profit.
That very same 12 months, the MSG’s Government Vice President Joel Fisher recommended that the venue can be amenable to transferring throughout the road on Seventh Avenue, the place the world-famous and now-demolished Resort Pennsylvania as soon as stood. The plot additionally belongs to Vornado, which intends to develop the location, dubbed PENN15, right into a skyscraping workplace tower when market circumstances align with the plan.
Hyperallergic contacted Vornado Realty Belief and the Madison Sq. Backyard Leisure Company for remark. Along with MSG’s relocation, the Alliance’s renderings for the Commuter Corridor evoke the unique Penn Station concourse’s excessive ceilings and iron and glass entrances — full with a duplicate of the unique clock — that will connect with the Moynihan Practice Corridor throughout the James A. Farley Publish Workplace via an underground tunnel. The boarding concourse would characteristic 18-foot excessive ceilings and a number of elevators and escalators as nicely.
The boarding concourse would have 18-foot excessive ceilings and a number of elevators and escalators.
Washburn, a chief architect of the Moynihan Practice Corridor growth, estimates that the Penn Station overhaul would price about $7.5 billion, with $3.5 billion dedicated to the relocation of MSG. Within the FAQ part of GPCA’s web site for the mission, the Alliance notes that the price estimate is “should cost $1 billion less than the schemes proposed by New York State and Amtrak,” each of which go away MSG above the station.
“What we’re doing here is ultimately a civic move,” Washburn mentioned in a telephone name with Hyperallergic, pointing on to the Ephebic oath for Classical Athenian youths that pledged to depart their metropolis higher than how they discovered it.
With reference to Penn Station’s turning into a hub for unsheltered individuals, particularly because the COVID-19 pandemic, Washburn mentioned that public restrooms and public seating have been unquestionably included within the proposal, “whereas many designers simply take out [those amenities] because they don’t want to deal with the issue.”
In response to potential apprehension towards each President Trump’s involvement in addition to the controversial name again to classical structure, each Shubow and Washburn stood by recalling the unique station’s memorable look.
A proposal rendering of the general public plaza forward of the glass entrance to Penn Station
“If people object to the architecture, well, they’re welcome to do so. But if President Trump gets involved, that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to get a wonderful station,” Shubow mentioned. “The design speaks for itself — regardless of what people might think about Trump’s politics, this is something that will make all New Yorkers proud.”
Washburn, who’s half Greek, shared that “classical architecture comes naturally” for him, and expressed that the shape works as an “interaction between the natural and the classical,” citing the Corinthian column’s use of the acanthus leaf motif as one instance.
In January, Trump issued a memorandum titled “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture” that known as for “regional, traditional, and classical architectural” designs. The memo prompted quick pushback from teams together with the American Institute of Architects, who mentioned the president’s preferences might stifle architectural freedom and innovation.
