A Midtown advocacy group has grand plans for a reimagined Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan, complete with a new train hall designed in what they describe as a “cost-effective and innovative” proposal.
The nonprofit group, Grand Penn Community Alliance, presented its Penn Station proposal, called Grand Penn, to the public on Tuesday at the New-York Historical Society.
They showed renderings of a new train hall reminiscent of the original Penn Station that existed before the early 1960s when the grand structure was demolished. The renderings also feature a sprawling public park where commuters can wait for their trains and a new facade with classical-style architecture.
Led by chief architect and former chief urban designer for NYC Alexandros Washburn, the independent design team will soon also present its proposal to the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and New York state leadership.
“We have a super-efficient plan because it’s focused on one train hall, a beautiful train hall,” Washburn said. “But it’s a minority of the square feet. Most of it is on a unified concourse.”
Transportation agencies that use Penn Station, including Amtrak, the MTA, and New Jersey Transit, have said they need to expand train capacity, hence the need to redesign the transit hub, which first opened to the public in 1910.
What the Grand Penn proposal would look like
Underground tunnels would link a Commuter Hall to the existing Moynihan Amtrak Station on Eighth Avenue. A replica of an iconic clock from the original Penn Station would be inside the hall.
The hall would also have an array of restaurants and shops.
An 18-foot-high Boarding Level would have escalators and elevators to the train levels as part of the ambitious plan.
Washburn said the plan, which includes building a new Madison Square Garden (MSG), would cost about $6.3 billion. He added that Grand Penn is more cost-effective than other current plans to expand the station because the prices are similar, but less work is needed, even though it involves moving and rebuilding the massive MSG for $2.3 billion of that total price tag.
It would also lessen disruption to the neighborhood, commuters and MSG attendees, Washburn explained, elaborating that the proposed park would be a prime area to wait for incoming trains.
“We laid it out, and it worked. So we now get a park as big as Bryant Park. Imagine on a sunny day, waiting for your train, you can have a picnic on the grass,” he said.
Robert Yaro, former president of the Regional Plan Association, supports the Grand Penn Plan, calling it the first “big opportunity” to redesign the hub since much of it was demolished in the 1960s.
“Since then, rail traffic and the region’s economy have expanded dramatically, so we urgently need to create both new capacity and amenity in the next version of Penn Station,” he said “The Grand Penn Community Alliance plan does these things and also gets us a new MSG for the same cost as simply patching up the existing station and Garden.”
The team’s next step is to submit the plans to the USDOT. The entire project is expected to take about 11 years to complete, if it gets full approval.
“It’s all about the stakeholders and getting a big win for everybody,” Washburn said.
