An Alternate Vision Vornado: Drop Dead

ASTM, HOK, and PAU share more details about their proposal to save Penn Station, including a new facade along 8th Avenue.

Governor Hochul exits developer scheme and shares new images of design by FXCollaborative Architects, WSP, and John McAslan + Partners.

New Yorkers recently got a long-awaited look at the “New Penn” plan. The design proposes a 180-degree reorientation, welcoming passengers from 8th Avenue, across from the Farley Building and the Moynihan Train Hall, but also two train halls connected by a passenger concourse. Removing the former Theater at Madison Square Garden on the 8th Avenue side, along with the entirety of Level B (site of the notorious low ceiling heights), allows for a grand entrance and generous space for the new western hall, whose 55-foot-high ceiling may relieve the current condition’s oppressive sense of enclosure. The grand gesture of the design, however, is a 105-foot-high arched glass ceiling midblock. Crucially, the scheme leaves Madison Square Garden in place. The New Penn team identifies the theater, not the arena, as the critical obstacle to a better station. Bill

Millard