A spokesman for Amtrak declined to comment for this story.īut the ASTM plan is roundly opposed by Mr. She made the announcement standing next to Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president, who has effectively endorsed the ASTM plan, and Anthony Coscia, the Amtrak chairman, whose railroad is open to the idea. Hochul said she was “open-minded about all of the possible scenarios,” which appeared to create an opening for ASTM. Vornado Realty Trust, the developer that was to build those skyscrapers, paused its plans in February. Cuomo, involved the development of millions of square feet of office space at a time when the commercial market is foundering and borrowing costs are high.
The decision to move forward without the tower component came as no surprise. The timing of her announcement did not seem coincidental: It occurred just days before ASTM was expected to unveil the financial details of its own plan. has estimated that the total cost of constructing the Eighth Avenue train hall would be $1.5 billion to $2 billion. plan would accomplish many of the same goals, with the exception of a new entrance at Eighth Avenue, which the agency has called unnecessarily costly, because the majority of passengers use the Seventh Avenue entrance. “This can’t be dismissed as cosmetic,” he said.
#Penn station renovation free#
Gone is the glassy box that would have surrounded MSG, replaced with a contemporary neoclassical podium of limestone or granite, with lines that mirror the Corinthian columns of the Beaux-Arts Farley Building across the street.ĭemolishing the theater would not only create space for a dramatic new entrance, but also free up room for an alternate truck loading plan that is crucial for the flow of traffic, Vishaan Chakrabarti, the creative director of PAU, said. The design team, led by PAU and HOK, the architectural firm that codesigned La Guardia Airport’s lauded Terminal B, has since made several changes. plan, which have been as high as $10 billion. “Theirs is $7-billion-plus, and where the money for that comes from is completely unclear,” he said, referring to cost estimates for the M.T.A. Responding to the M.T.A.’s criticism, Peter Cipriano, the senior vice president of ASTM North America, said at a presentation on Tuesday that his firm’s proposal would be less expensive and that there was a clear plan to pay for it. The bulk of any renovation would be funded by state and federal tax dollars. Efforts to renovate the train hub have been stymied by the presence of an arena on top of it, and for years officials have clamored for the Garden to relocate, to little effect.Īlthough other plans to renovate Penn Station have been proposed and then discarded over the years, unable to overcome bureaucratic and political hurdles, several city and state officials and leaders of influential nonprofits have signaled support for ASTM’s proposal. Cuomo, but it has done little to alleviate the crowded and dreary conditions at Penn Station itself. That idea became a reality under former Gov. Farley Post Office building across Eighth Avenue into a train hall. and New Jersey Transit.Ĭivic leaders have been calling for a new Penn Station since at least the 1990s, when the former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan proposed converting the old James A.
The announcement was likely to stoke conflict between ASTM and the M.T.A., whose chief, Janno Lieber, said in April that the plan was wasteful, in part because it involved paying the owners of Madison Square Garden, which sits atop the station, a hefty fee to demolish a portion of the complex.Īlthough Amtrak owns the building, the decision on which redesign plan to pursue was expected to be made jointly by the railroad and the states of New York and New Jersey, which control the M.T.A. because it would be $1 billion cheaper and result in a more unified train hall. Kathy Hochul of New York signaled that the state was ready to move forward with a renovation.ĪSTM officials said at a presentation on Tuesday that the firm’s plan was better than the one backed by the M.T.A. The new plan by ASTM North America involves overhauling Penn Station, the busiest train hub in the United States, and wrapping Madison Square Garden in a towering stone facade. A private development firm with an alternative vision for the remaking of Manhattan’s Pennsylvania Station said on Wednesday that its plan would be significantly cheaper than a rival proposal backed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
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