NEW YORK | Penn Station Expansion/Improvements

New York Proposed
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The MTA doesn’t support the ASTM proposal. If they don’t support it, it has no chance.

For one, it seems to be an MSG-ASTM proposal. It might even be that ASTM is functionally a front for MSG’s interests. It’s clear they’ve worked together, for years now, and MSG would benefit by getting permanent residency on the site, and getting a nice payout for an underused arena (the lower level theater isn’t a big moneymaker and MSG would like to unload it). The state proposal doesn’t give anything to MSG, and allows for its eventual removal, while preserving the grand central concourse.

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Also, people really don’t like the renderings? The concourse makes Moynihan Hall look like an outhouse. The only grander concourse is Calatrava at the WTC.

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https://www.removepaywall.com/article/current

Ladies & Gentlemen ASTM proposal for Penn Station, $6 billion price tag. I have a paywall bypass so everyone can read it. I uploaded two photos but there are more…

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Thanks for the photos. The url isn’t working.

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843

That looks very good.

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The MSG panels in the ASTM look so much better than what we saw in the initial renderings.

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846

Apparently, this will be a stone facade. This looks surprisingly nice.

Now, Vornado has to do its part to clean up this area.

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847

Yes, it looks like the building is actually being recladded instead of something being added to it in this latest version from ASTM. As a whole, even though I still dont like the idea of expanding the footprint to be a square, I think it looks great, though there’s definitely more space that could be taken out to heighten the ceiling space even more/make the opening on 8th ave larger. It looks like it was made smaller than what the initial render showed.

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Additional photos pulled:

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This oddly reminds of the atrium part in the old Penn Station:

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Of course no where near as grand but that dream has been crushed a thousand times over:

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Oh no, yeah I dont like the interior (but for the midblock atrium), bring back the wavy undulating wood ceiling in the previous version :sob:

The ceiling is a map of Manhattan but it doesnt look good at all at that large of a scale…

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850

Yeah. That was the best part of their first schematic. I don’t know why they changed it.

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ASTM’s latest designs call for the new station facade to be clad with limestone and granite in addition to the glass. The Eighth Avenue frontage would mimic the design of the Farley Post Office Building across the street, which was itself designed to imitate the old Penn Station—making the new building “the mirror of the mirror of a ghost.

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It looks too insitutional instead of being civil.

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Ah the classic simulation and simulacra…

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The interior looks a bit stodgy. It’s like they sucked out all the modernity out of the their first design.

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And also made the entrance far less grand in the process…

Now its just a side pair of escalators and stairs with what looks to be a waterfall inbetween instead of the entire width being a stair

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856

I for one am a fan of the clean, mid-century look.

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857

I think that the waterfall would look and sound amazing.

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Oh no, I don’t hate it. Will they touch up / clean up the facade of MSG in the process? Probably not since it’s not their building but I hope it gets a power-wash.

Edit: nvm I didn’t realize the facade is updated compared to what we have now.