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(rshsdepot) Hoboken, NJ

- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 04:49:50 -0800 (PST)
From: "Gary R. Kazin"
Subject: (erielack) Reviving the Glory of Hoboken Terminal

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/realestate/commercial/21station.html

By C. J. HUGHES
Published: December 21, 2005

HOBOKEN, N.J. - For many commuters, the Hoboken Terminal is not much more
than a place to hustle through during rush hour en route to waiting
trains, buses, boats and cabs. Yet those commuters could soon be in less
of a hurry, and maybe even stop and stay awhile.

<photo of interior on web site>

The old Lackawanna Railroad and ferry terminal in Hoboken still has an
opulent waiting room, awaiting modern use.

New Jersey Transit, the state's largest public transportation agency, and
the owner of the green-roofed terminal on the Hudson River waterfront, is
restoring the building, which was originally the home of the Erie
Lackawanna Railroad.

In the process, the agency hopes to unlock the earning potential of an
underused resource by adding stores, restaurants and possibly apartments
on the 65-acre site. If passengers treat the terminal as more of a
destination, it will in turn increase passenger trips, the thinking goes,
which will generate additional revenues. Ultimately, New Jersey Transit
might collect rents from tenants that never existed before.

So, in October, the agency chose a developer, LCOR Inc., based in Berwyn,
Pa., ending an 18-month search.

LCOR, a large-scale commercial and residential contractor that redeveloped
the international arrivals terminal at Kennedy International Airport, now
has exclusive development rights for the property. LCOR will pay the costs
of the development and a $450,000 fee to New Jersey Transit.

Though few specifics have been spelled out, the idea is to make better use
of idle railyards and dormant platform space, as well as sections of the
terminal that have been closed to the public for decades, those involved
in the deal say. A renovated terminal, they added, would also fill in a
sizable gap in New Jersey's swiftly developing riverfront.

"This is truly a keystone location, connecting the two communities of
Hoboken and Jersey City," said Kurt M. Eichler, LCOR's executive vice
president and principal. "Until now, it's been two communities developing
separately around a single mode of transportation, but that will change."

The details of the renovation are being left to LCOR after a process that
will include public hearings. "We don't know what it will look like yet,"
said George D. Warrington, New Jersey Transit's executive director. "But
we want to all come together with a product that will generate income for
ourselves as well as the community."

Ideas for the redesign will be fleshed out over the next nine months. LCOR
has announced that its partners will be Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the
architecture firm that designed the Time Warner Center, and William
Jackson Ewing Inc., the Baltimore-based developer that did the renovation
of Grand Central Terminal and Union Station in Washington.

This has, of course, invited speculation that the new Hoboken Terminal
will end up looking like Grand Central, and for its part, New Jersey
Transit is not discouraging that line of thinking.

Under the terms of the deal, LCOR will also reorganize the space to allow
the 50,000 commuters who pass through each day to get to their points of
departure more easily.

Though many different modes of transportation converge at the terminal -
the New York Waterway ferries, PATH subway trains, Hudson-Bergen Light
Rail trains and New Jersey Transit trains and buses - they are somewhat
haphazardly arranged in the terminal now and are poorly coordinated.

The Hoboken Terminal, built in 1907, is a two-story Beaux-Arts structure
designed by Kenneth Murchison, an architect with the firm of McKim, Mead &
White, which designed the original Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan. The
structure was originally a hub for ferries, trolleys, freight trains and
passenger trains, and it was also home to a mail-sorting site and a
Y.M.C.A. residence.

In addition to possibly increasing the terminal's floor space, LCOR will
refurbish the concourse, the second-floor space where passengers used to
board ferries; it has been closed since 1967. Spaced along the roof of the
concourse are nine Tiffany skylights, to match the large Tiffany skylight
in the first-floor waiting room, which was handsomely restored in an
earlier renovation. The uses for the concourse have not been decided.

There is a separate effort already under way to rehabilitate the rest of
the terminal building. New Jersey Transit is spending $129 million to put
five of the six old ferry bays back in use. (The sixth will become a
museum.) That sum includes $43 million contributed by the Port Authority
of New York and New Jersey, which leases ferry slips from New Jersey
Transit for use by New York Waterway.

When that project, which begins in earnest this winter, is finished in the
spring of 2008, New York Waterway will move its boats into the bays. Since
1989, the company has been running three lines of boats from a white tent
just to the south of the terminal.

New Jersey Transit will also clean the copper roof - adorned with cupolas
and intricate moldings with egg-and-dart patterns - restoring its original
brown hue.

The project also calls for building a replacement for the 203-foot clock
tower that was taken down in the 1950's because it was so deteriorated
that there were concerns it would topple. A red-and-white radio antenna
stands there today.

If restoring the terminal encourages more people to use mass transit, New
Jersey could rank with Portland Ore., and northern Virginia, other places
where transportation hubs have been highly successful, according to Tom
Wright, executive vice president of the Regional Plan Association, an
independent, nonprofit organization in New York, New Jersey and
Connecticut.

"Transit should be an uplifting experience," Mr. Wright said. "And there's
an intrinsic value in having not just functional but beautiful public
spaces."

    * Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Gary R. Kazin
DL&W Milepost R35.7
Rockaway, New Jersey

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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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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1271
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org