There is little to do on a cold Saturday afternoon so on January 2nd, we we took the Q to see the new Moynihan Train Station. It was much hyped by Governor Cuomo and the reviews were positive; we went to see for ourselves.
The hall exceeded all expectations! The station was bright and airy even on a rainy January day.
The original Penn Station, a work of art, was unceremoniously destroyed in the 1960s to make way for one of the uncomfortable and ugly places of transport. Worse that pre-renovation LaGuardia Airport. The only positive to come out of early Penn’s demolition was the backlash, instituting the Landmarks Preservation Commission which later worked to save Grand Central of a similar fate.
A special surprise was the attention to the details and comfort of the waiting areas.
This is contemporary design of public spaces at its best.
Much has been made of the clock and the open architecture of the roof but the real star is
Beautiful ceiling structure in the front entrances which elicit a inverted NYC skyline.
In these difficult days of January 2021 we are grateful to have a something unabashedly good.
BTW, my COO, Roary, is telling me I need to add more about the history of Penn Station, cost detail and political wrangling around the project. The New York Times does a better job that I ever could:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/30/arts/design/penn-station-art-moynihan.html
