Designing the Midtown of Tomorrow
Photo by Zach Williams
Current predictions suggest that the Port Authority will replace its aging bus terminal within 20 years. Moynihan Station could be ready for rail traffic by that time as well.
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Continued from page 1 for a new Midtown bus terminal this year. The shortcomings of the current 50-year-old facility are well-known and fundamental. It is too small and will fall apart in the coming decades from age, and the bigger modern buses. If all goes well, a replacement could open in about 15 years with accommodations for the 1,000 buses (each weighing 27 tons) per hour estimated to be in motion during the evening rush period of 2040 — a nearly 25 percent increase from
current levels, according to a March 2015 Port Authority presentation on the plan. Five concepts for a new terminal were included in the presentation. Their prices vary from $7.5 to $10.5 billion. The more high-rise development space they include, the lower the price. The cheapest option would not even fully accommodate commuter passenger demand, while intercity buses would only find a home within the priciest design. A future Hell’s Kitchen free from bus congestion on neighborhood streets depends on the decisions of which way to go, but the Port Authority is not the only entity looking to shake up the local streetscape. Rail travel was left for dead at about the same time that the current bus terminal was built. Former parks commissioner and “master builder” Robert Moses was busy reinventing the city for the needs of the automobile. His efforts to lay express freeways across Manhattan ironically catalyzed the historical landmarking process, which ensures that much of old New York City will survive well into the current century. The future Moynihan Station (at the former Farley Post Office building at Eighth Ave. btw. W. 31 & W. 33rd Sts.) will not be the rebirth of the old Pennsylvania Station per se — but a certain amount of irony, if not karma, could be at work. Beaux-Arts architecture will have its niche in mid-21st century transportation, even if we’re stuck with the current Penn Station for the time being. Meanwhile, another historical throwback is in the works. An ongoing effort has the goal of replacing private automobiles on 42nd St. with
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June 04 - 10, 2015
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