(rshsdepot) Penn Station-NY

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

New Jersey Space in New York's Penn Station
By RONALD SMOTHERS
The New York Times

Commuting by train can be a herdlike affair. But for years, those commuting
from New Jersey to New York have lacked even the rudimentary amenity of
their own waiting area, sharing a concourse in Pennsylvania Station with
Amtrak passengers.

On Monday that will change, when New Jersey Transit opens a new,
50,000-square-foot, $125 million concourse for the estimated 117,000 daily
commuters from New Jersey.

The split-level area - unveiled yesterday during a walking tour by New
Jersey's transportation commissioner, James P. Fox - features banks of
ticket windows and machines, a waiting area with seats, and marble walls:
tan Botticino accented with reddish wedges of Rosato.

He acknowledged that life for most New Jersey commuters had "not been easy,"
with crowded trains and unappealing routes to rush through once they were
off the trains.

But with seven new escalators, six new elevators, exits to the street, the
Long Island Rail Road, the subway and access to 12 tracks, he said, New
Jerseyans could look forward to "a higher quality of commute."

"The concourse will alleviate congestion and reduce commuting time as
customers will have quicker, more convenient access to platforms," Mr. Fox
said.

The new concourse was carved out of a walled-off area in the southeast
quadrant, some of which had been part of the original 1906 station. It is
just off the lower level walkway that runs from the Seventh Avenue
escalators to the main concourse. The space had been filled with steel
girders, crisscrossing above the tracks to help support an office building
above, said Chan Ho Chen, the chief structural engineer with Jacobs Civil
Inc. "We also found old ramps from the old station and the massive granite
slabs that were originally used to build the station," he said.

Once an area was cleared for the concourse, Schuyler Ortega, the project's
architect, tried to emulate the original Penn Station.

But many features are quite different: they include etchings of New Jersey
scenes - like stretches of crowded beaches - sandblasted into the marble
walls by the artist Larry Kirkland. Next to the scenes are lines from the
poems of a dozen New Jersey poets.

"I was trying to capture how certain places in the state might look if seen
from a moving train," Mr. Kirkland said.

In the center of the concourse is a glassed-in area containing a kinetic
sculpture depicting New Jersey lore, like Washington crossing the Delaware,
Miss America in Atlantic City, Thomas Edison's phonograph and the mythical
Jersey Devil of the Pine Barrens.

"It's meant to move, be alive and get people's attention," said George
Greenamyer, the sculptor.



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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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