I can’t even read the article with a sound mind, for someone who used to be head of design for a mayor of the city, you’d think they’d understand the implications of their project/vision “and” understand what is actually going on with the current Penn Station expansion project and the Empire Station Complex instead of being seemingly narrow minded, someone in that position (former) should not be a person who takes sides, they should be neutral and understand both positions but are clearly leaning nimby.
And as it relates to historicism, again coming from someone who was a former head of design for the mayor of the city, that design is a spectacle from the actual original Penn Station terminal building, the whole thing is confusing. He’s placed the train hall on the opposite side of where it originally was and on the opposite side of where more of the train stalls are and that’s his reasoning to demolish PENN 2. And no attempt has even been made to replicate the design of the old terminal but for the actual train hall, the surrounding colonnade is different, so he’s flipped the train hall but put the same colonnade of the east half, which they were not the same. The front half on the east side facing 7th Ave was the more imposing facade, the west 8th Ave side was meh.
The whole scheme is nonsense. The better move wouldve been to put the trainhall where it belongs on the west side where MSG is, build the giant concourse hall which was also in the footprint of MSG and put the park where PENN 2 is if he wanted a park, it makes no sense to demolish a basically completely gutted and new building for a train hall that isnt supposed to be on that side to begin with. The park is also way too big, green space is welcomed but it can also be introduced into the architecture or go to Central Park, Bryant Park, or all the new Bella Abzug Park and Manhattan West Plaza. In this manner he has still put the majority half of the station underground with the park, he didnt solve anything.
People need to stop trying to make visionary piece meal projects of the original Penn Station into little bits and pieces here and there. The original terminal was a unit, if it was to come back it all needs to come back and that’s simply not happening.
This should surprise no one, but the New York Post headline is wrong. Ground was not broken on any stations. Construction on stations will not begin until 2024 at the earliest (and likely much later than that, if at all).
Looks like the area around the escalators is nearly finished with regard to the installation of the LED panels. What a massive improvement compared to what was there originally.
The new signage looks really nice as well. Gives a similar vibe to the updated airport signage in EWR and LGA. I hope NJT decides to update its space because it will become the worst area in Penn when everything else is finished.
The LED panels do change colour. If you look at posts from a few months ago such as my own from November, they were lit in a pink colour with some panels being orange. These latest images from you show them as white and there are a few blue ones (probably for testing).
That article is by the same person who thought of that backwards Penn Station proposal a few posts back and is still clearly showing his poor bias towards new developments but for only to move MSG since his Penn Station proposal didn’t make any sense and is a waste of space.
Some of the points he’s made in the article don’t make any sense and I’d like to see the information or statistics that back some of them. It almost sounds like he’s joking around with it by saying things like “back-asswards”.
@robertwalpole they can shut it down in regards to the existence of the operating permit, but like it’s been mentioned many times before, they still do not own the building itself, they don’t have any leverage in that aspect. Dolan still doesn’t have to pay property taxes because of the exemption passed in the state legislature and that is unrelated to the operating permit, he can let the building sit there. Unless the state used eminent domain or something of the sort, they can’t shut down do anything as it involves MSG from a physical stand point of the building itself.
Well if they moved immediately in June after the permit expires they’d lose revenue more than if they stayed and the city again extended the operating permit.
Because they dont pay property taxes, they would only be losing revenue generated from events. But if they moved, they’d be paying for the expenses to relocate/build a new arena without getting renevue from events. The whole thing would need to be timed properly, it’s not as easy as the city just saying bye because they too know that any revenue generated from events that occur at MSG benefits the city as a whole.
This rendering from the MTA shows the panels are able to be programmable since it shows them depicting a clear blue sky with clouds. The only way to know for sure is to wait until construction is finished or they decide to test this feature sometime prior to completion.
I completely forgot about that render, lol. I personally would hope that they cycle between colors or have a soft cloud or gradient affect because just the straight white itself is kind of depressing and institutional, it’s a very cold white. I do wish that the grid lines/spacing had been more narrow/less noticeable like in the render then how they actually turned out.
