Penn, Again
Penn Station’s condition has had little to do with its architecture, and much to do with how people who don’t live in big cities feel about big cities.
As noted in NYRA #31, New York loves tearing down Penn Station. First they came for the revered Gilded Age original. Now they’re coming for the midcentury modern gem and urbane social condenser that was its replacement—plus the glorious survivor that is McKim, Mead & White’s palazzo-like 1908 Power Plant on 31st Street, (which should of course become the new home of the American Folk Art Museum). The TLDR on my earlier take: as a significantly New York State–funded entity in the heart of New York City, Penn Station is blamed for its own contemptuous neglect. Its condition has had little to do with its actual and wonderful architecture, and much to do with how people who don’t live in big cities feel about big cities. And feel about people who live in big cities, and who rely on public transportation, and who attend basketball games.
A destruction proposal once supported by New York State governor Kathy Hochul was to have raised a Hudson Yards East: a clot of ten supertalls, a laughable 540 units of affordable housing, and a desire that Madison Square Garden might waf…
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