I think that Chakrabarti’s plan is the ideal.
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I would be totally fine with something like this, I look forward to seeing more renderings.
It’s a disgrace that the corrupt Erie County Clerk/“Governor” won’t rescind the Dolans’ tax break.
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The new design is very similar to the Woods Bagot concept although its designed by the people responsible for LGA Terminal B. Proposals simular to the Woods Bagot concept are the most realistic solutions right now to fixing Penn especially since MSG won’t be moving anytime soon.
I hope NJ Transit gets an upgrade as well with this proposal since they seem to always get shafted in these Penn Station upgrade plans. Their concourses are terrible.
(Source)
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See, that’s completely beautiful, doable, and helps a lot! I just dont like the “box” addition to the exterior. I think it only needed to be restricted to where the current “box” of the hulu theater is. The opening on 8th just needs to be bigger to let in more light.
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I’m fine with the box as long as it looks nice. I didn’t find any exterior renderings yet. A possible reason for its existence might be to line up with the extension over 2 Penn to make it look “unified.” That’s just my speculation.
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If they can do this without impacting plans for Penn South expansion, for the Gateway tunnel and for Vornado’s future towers, alongside future Penn building entrances/connections, then I’m good with this plan. It isn’t perfect, but it’s worth pursuing. MSG would basically be hidden.
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Yes, it does seem it contains light wells similar to Moynihan. It also looks like MSG gets a recladding as well which is desperately needed.
Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like a full reclad, a screen of slats is just being “added” ontop of the existing facade which will still be the slightest visible, I’d prefer if the facade was actually updated and not just “hidden”.
The NYTimes article I referenced in my post about the interior renderings actually mentions Woods Bagot so I actually wonder if the city used it as a reference for this version since both involve deleting the theatre.
From the NYTimes article:
The demolition of the Theater at MSG would free up substantial room for the train hub below, which is crowded with structural columns that disrupt the passage of commuters, said Elizabeth Goldstein, the president of the Municipal Art Society, a nonprofit preservation group that was briefed on the plans. The group supported a similar overhaul of the train station in 2014
Bypass paywall here.
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The box around the bottom half thankfully deletes the bottom half of the facade and if the slats are executed in a decent manner, it’ll definitely be an improvement.
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Atleast the portion of the box that actually touches the building, the old streetlevel portion still seems to be visible lol.
The new diagram reeks of a value engineered version of the Woods Bagot proposal. IMHO, anything they can do NOW on the cheap is better than waiting on the Dolans to move out of the goodness of their heart. Lord knows, no one’s going to find the political courage to force them. Ripping out the theater, bringing in light from all directions, letting Westfield or some such build a mall inside, and wrapping the whole thing in an inexpensive skin seems preferable to maintaining the status quo for 10-20 years.
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Image of the midblock entrance, instead of the whole thing being one long “hall” it seems the section leading up to the arena has been closed off and the “hall” continues under it instead and goes back up the other end. I kind of liked the giant hall as it was a very destinct aspect and a good wayfinding point to where the entrances were. In this scheme the entrances just blend in behind the striped facade.
Eitherway, the interiors are nice, I’m still just not a fan of the property line design. There’s too much congestion with the sidewalks open as they are now, acting as their own mini plaza’s even. I cant imagine what narrowing them down to a normal sidewalk width would do even if on some portions there seems to be an arcade articulating the streetlevel conditions.
And a slightly wider angle of the previous render.
Source
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looks cool!
I wonder how many billions this “lipstick on a pig” will cost. I didn’t realize until today that the Dolans have bought Hochul, so any hope for a real solution is unrealistic.
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Demolishing the Hulu Theater is a real solution. Keeping an arena above a transit hub is good planning. Building towers around a transit hub is good planning.
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Since Kathy isn’t going to force the Dolans to move, the state should buy this site on 7th and 34th from Vornado. I always enter the LIRR from here, and it’s akin to descending into Hell.
How many times do you want to repeat this post? You did the same thing twice at 15 Penn Place and now here.
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