After the hotel is demolished and the Verizon billboards come down, will this site be leased out to the MTA for use as a parking lot for Long Island Rail Road employees?
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I think they’re demolishing to the basement so I don’t think that would be possible
Basements are usually filled in with rubble and gravel until the excavation can begin. While it would be nice to see this space used for some sort of useful public programming, I expect it’s more likely to sit as a fenced off vacant lot until the redevelopment begins.
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It’s possible they will do the basement and first floor. There might be a push from the city to restore the Gimbels tunnel.
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As far as im aware, restoring/enhancing the Gimbel’s passageway was a stipulation of Vornado’s agreements when awarded the right to redevelop the site/area as are/were a number of other transit related improvements.
According to the environmental impact study, Vornado would build new subway entrances at Seventh Avenue between West 32nd and 33rd streets; widen the congested northbound No. 1 line platform by six feet; and widen stairs and build new escalators and elevators to serve the subway and PATH lines. It would also improve access to the Sixth Avenue subway and PATH entrances, which are both now hidden inside the Manhattan Mall.
But the most dramatic change in the proposal might be a plan to open a sanitized, 21st Century edition of the old Gimbels Passageway — the creepy corridor that once connected the Herald Square and Penn Station/Seventh Avenue subway stations, until crime and squalor forced the MTA to close it in 1980.
The concourse would be widened to 16 feet from 9 feet and crafted like Rockefeller Center’s, with stores, artwork and mid- block access points.
So I’d imagine or atleast hope that Vornado continues with the stipulation for all those transit improvement related items as was done by SLGreen in the GC area with One Vanderbilt.
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Forgot to post this yesterday, floor directly above the Verizon ads is gone but for the steel frame. It’s also really hard to tell through the netting but it looks like the front porch/colonnade is gone as well compared to shots in April when they were still clearly visibly behind the netting.
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You guys were right. I spoke to a foreman at the site and he said “I’m being paid to take it down to grade.” I guess that means it will sit like 341-347 Madison until a plan is finalized.
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Maybe this will be the only tower in the Penn District…
It’s all going to take time.
Legend has it those billboards will stay even during the construction of this skyscraper
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The billboards be like, “My time isn’t up yet!”
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Earlier today.
Welcome to the Hotel Pennsylvania.
The hotel has checked out, but the billboards will never leave.
North wing
Colonnade
South wing
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they would have already been removed, but LPC strongly opposes it
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The Gimbels passageway restoration is perhaps my favorite part of this project. Reconnecting the two stations is long overdue.
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15 Penn showing its side cores from the north:
And with the surrounding Vornado Penn District placeholder designs, including Site 6 masking 15’s blank side:
Source photograph by Anthony Quintano (CC BY 2.0): File:Above Gotham.jpg - Wikipedia
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Nice!!
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