A dramatic new vision has been unveiled for Manhattan’s Penn Station, promising to transform the notoriously gloomy transit hub back into a beacon of architectural grandeur, reminiscent of its original, majestic form.
The station, once a monolithic Beaux-Arts terminal with Roman-style columns and the city’s largest indoor space, was controversially demolished in 1963 to make way for Madison Square Garden. This left commuters to navigate “gloomy, claustrophobic, low-ceilinged corridors,” a stark contrast to its former glory.
Lamenting the change, the architectural historian Vincent Scully said: “Through Pennsylvania Station one entered the city like a god. One scuttles in now like a rat.”
However, renderings released Monday by Amtrak and Penn Transformation Partners, the design and development consortium selected for the project, reveal a plan to restore that lost grandeur. The proposed design features a rectangular, stone facade lined with imposing columns along a grand entryway…