NEW DESIGN FOR N.Y. PENN STATION:
The fourth new design for an expanded Pennsylvania Station within the landmark General Post Office across Eighth Avenue was unveiled April 26, 2006, by state officials and the developers. It is the most modest to date, but it may prove to be the one that can actually get built, after a 14-year prelude.
A barrel-vaulted glass skylight would be built over the central court in the post office, known formally as the James A. Farley Building, which would then serve as the main train hall.
Another public hall, closer to the middle of the blocklong building, would get a soaring skylight in the form of a parabolic arch.
The unveiling, after a meeting of the Moynihan Station Development Corporation, steered clear of what would happen to the Ninth Avenue side of the Farley Building if Madison Square Garden moved there.
Earlier this year, real estate executives and government officials said such a deal was close. Should that happen, it might be possible to reconstruct Penn Station on its current site and create an entirely new gateway for the estimated 550,000 people who come through every day on the Long Island Rail Road, Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and the subways.
[Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen, 4-27-06, from New York Times website report by David W. Dunlap]
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