The release Wednesday morning of striking renderings by four of the city's top architecture firms for a new, improved Penn Station drew oohs and ahhs from many, but not all. The many—architects and urban designers—welcomed the latest push to undo the destruction of Penn, but planners and real estate bosses expressed grave reservations over the plans, which were drawn up at the behest of the Municipal Art Society.
Diller Scofidio & Renfro. This proposal took a more philosophical approach, making much of the idea that a new Penn could be "a city within a city" and combining multiple uses into one multi-layered, porous space that would look like "a large sponge-like mass, aerated from every angle. "Moves Madison Square Garden across Eighth Avenue next to the James A. Farley Post Office building; Penn Station becomes a multilevel public space with amenities like a spa and a theater. “We’re making waiting a kind of virtue,” said Elizabeth Diller, a principal of the firm. “In New York, we’re always late and we think of waiting as a waste. How could you turn that into a positive attribute and actually come there early and spend more time?”
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Moves Madison Square Garden off site and expands the station to four city blocks from two. They would upzone plots all along Seventh Avenue to make way for tall office towers, four of which would occupy the four corners of the Penn Station site. The green space is four times the size of Bryant Park; housing twice the size of Tudor City; more offices than Rockefeller Center; and more cultural spaces than Lincoln Center. “We saw Madison Square Garden as a sideshow,” said Roger Duffy, a design partner. “The primary purpose of the site is for the public and transportation.”
H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture This proposal moves the entire complex to the West Side waterfront at 34th Street, creates an elevated bike and pedestrian promenade and turns Pier 76 into a new 16-acre park. “It’s an opportunity to do more than just fix things,” Hugh Hardy, a founding partner, said.
SHoP Architects. Their Penn Station is an "urban bowl," with two parks, a more airy concourse, wider sidewalks and plazas around the three-block site, and a garden towards the top. SHoP also proposed an extension of the High Line that would loop eastward, past the relocated MSG to deposit pedestrians at Penn. Expands the existing site with a lightweight concrete structure that is meant to evoke the old Penn Station and seeks to make the station a social meeting spot. “When’s the last time you heard someone say, ‘Let’s meet for a drink at Penn Station?'” asked Vishaan Chakrabarti, a principal. “People say that about Grand Central all the time.”
Story via CURBED, MASNYC and The New York Times
