[Date Prev][Date Next] [Chronological] [Thread] [Top]

(rshsdepot) New York, NY (Penn Station)

From today's New York Times.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
New Grandeur for Penn Station in Latest Plan  
By _CHARLES V. BAGLI_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/charles_v_bagli/index.html?inline=nyt-per) 
 
It began as a proposal to restore the Beaux-Arts grandeur of the old  
Pennsylvania Station. It grew into a sweeping plan to transform the area around  the 
station into a district of gleaming office towers. Now it is growing again.  
In the next three weeks, two of the city’s largest developers will unveil new 
 plans for rebuilding the station, moving Madison Square Garden, replacing 
the  Hotel Pennsylvania, and erecting a pair of skyscrapers, one of which would 
be  taller than the _Empire State Building_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/e/empire_state_building/index.html?inline=nyt-class
ifier) , over the site of the existing  station.  
Though the new plan is broadly similar to a proposal offered a year ago, it  
is different in several important ways, starting with the cost: $14 billion,  
double that of the original plan, a real estate executive who has seen the 
plan  said. It is also bigger than anticipated: the entire plan, involving 
buildings  on six adjacent blocks, would create 10 million square feet of new office 
space  off West 33rd Street, as much as in the old World Trade Center.  
The developers, Stephen M. Ross and Steven Roth, have also burnished their  
vision for the station, which would be renamed after Senator _Daniel Patrick 
Moynihan_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/daniel_patrick_moynihan/index.html?inline=nyt-per) , who championed the original  
idea. Civic groups and the head of the _City Planning Commission_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/city_planning_commission/i
ndex.html?inline=nyt-org) , Amanda M. Burden, had  complained that last year’
s plan treated the underground station as an  afterthought, without a grand 
public space worthy of the country’s busiest  transit hub.  
The new plan would try to recapture the imposing aura of the original station 
 inside the James A. Farley Post Office across the street, with a vast,  
street-level waiting room under a glass canopy that would spill sunlight onto  the 
concourse two levels below.  
In the next three weeks, the public will get its first, albeit sketchy, look  
at the new plan when the Spitzer administration takes the first step in an  
environmental review of the project’s potential impact on the neighborhood. 
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I think the stars are aligned to 
 do this,” said Patrick J. Foye, co-chairman of the Empire State Development  
Corporation, the state authority overseeing the project.  
It is far from a done deal. 
Despite progress on the designs and numerous meetings with officials from  
Amtrak, the _Port Authority of New York and New Jersey_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/p/port_authority_of_new_york_and_new
_jersey/index.html?inline=nyt-org) , _New Jersey Transit_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/new_jersey_transit/index.html
?inline=nyt-org) , the Long Island Rail Road and the  Metropolitan 
Transportation Authority, the developers do not have a definitive  agreement with the 
various transportation agencies.  
The developers also have yet to hammer out a final deal with the owners of  
Madison Square Garden, Cablevision and the Dolan family, to move the Garden to  
the western part of the Farley building, which would be the arena’s fifth 
home  in 132 years. The two sides have a nonbinding agreement. 
More important, the estimated cost of renovating the station has also  
doubled, to $2 billion, and no one knows who will pay. Compounding the problem,  
another state project, the expansion of the nearby Jacob K. Javits Convention  
Center, has also doubled in cost, to $4 billion. And state officials have warned 
 that the proposed renovations of the Farley building may not qualify for 
$225  million in federal tax credits they want. 
Proponents contend that the Moynihan Station project has an important benefit 
 that justifies using public dollars: a new transportation hub that would 
form a  monumental gateway to the city. But civic groups have also argued that 
the  developers should shoulder a substantial portion of the cost of renovating 
the  station because it would make their property far more valuable. 
Mr. Roth, the chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, and Mr. Ross, chief executive 
 of the Related Companies, would build 5.5 million square feet of office and  
retail space on the current site of Madison Square Garden, on Eighth Avenue  
between 31st and 33rd Streets. If it were approved, they would also build a 
two  million-square-foot tower at the southwest corner of Seventh Avenue and 
34th  Street, using development rights from the post office building. 
In addition, Mr. Roth’s company plans to demolish the Hotel Pennsylvania,  
across Seventh Avenue from Madison Square Garden, to make way for a 2.5  
million-square-foot building. Real estate executives and urban planners say that  if 
the plan reaches fruition, Vornado, which already owns about seven million  
square feet in the neighborhood, will dominate one district like no other  
landlord in the city. 
“Given the magnitude of the project and the wealth which could be created for 
 the developers,” Mr. Foye said, “we expect them to make a significant  
contribution to the cost of the train station.” 
So far, the developers have said only that government should pay for the  
station. 
“The project,” said Vishaan Chakrabarti, a vice president of Related, “will  
unlock billions of dollars in tax revenues, remake the dismal area 
surrounding  Pennsylvania Station” and catalyze development on the Far West Side. 
That is a sentiment shared by the Bloomberg administration as well as  
business and civic groups like the Partnership for _New York City_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/manhattan/?i
nline=nyt-geo)  and the _Regional Plan Association_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/regional_plan_assn/index.html?inlin
e=nyt-org) . But Kent L. Barwick,  president of the _Municipal Art Society_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/m/municipal_a
rt_society/index.html?inline=nyt-org) , a civic group that has met with  the 
developers, said that it was “inappropriate” for the state to put the  
project on the fast track and begin an environmental review before “the design,  the 
financing and all the implications are on the table.” 
Senator Moynihan first suggested in 1992 that the Farley post office, which  
stretches from Eighth to Ninth Avenue opposite the Garden, could be turned 
into  a grand train station to help alleviate congestion at Penn Station in a 
gesture  of civic redemption for the much-lamented demolition of the original 
station in  the 1960s. 
The state ultimately agreed to buy the Beaux-Arts post office, though the  
Postal Service continues to operate the historic stamp windows behind the  
colonnade on Eighth Avenue. In 2005, the state selected Related and Vornado to  
develop the project. Since the tracks beneath Madison Square Garden extend below  
the post office, the original plan was to convert the landmark building into 
a  $900 million train station with a monumental train room and large stores 
like  Kmart. 
But the developers always had bigger things in mind. They hoped to persuade  
Cablevision, which owns the Garden, to sell its development rights and move to 
a  new arena, which would allow for the renovation of Penn Station and enable 
them  to build a huge new office complex.  
Last December, the plan hit a roadblock when the State Assembly, which is  
controlled by Democrats, refused to approve the Farley portion of the project,  
snubbing the outgoing Republican governor, _George E. Pataki_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/george_e_pataki/index.html?inline
=nyt-per) . 
Since then, the Spitzer and the Bloomberg administrations have been working  
with the developers. The latest plan calls for a new, 20,000-seat arena to be  
built in the western two-thirds of the Farley building. The glass-covered 
arena  would rise as much as 35 feet above the roof of the post office, with a 
10-foot  setback. Signs advertising events at the Garden would be mounted on 
kiosks,  rather than plastered on the building as the Garden owners originally  
suggested. 
One source of continuing dispute on the station has been the Garden’s  
insistence that the colonnade on Eighth Avenue serve as the entrance to the  arena, 
with basketball and hockey fans buying tickets at the stamp windows,  walking 
around the interior, past a large train room, into the arena. Commuters  using 
New Jersey Transit or Long Island Rail Road would enter the building  through 
separate, street-level entrances. 
The Garden’s owners are also proposing to replace interior brick walls with  
glass, allowing visitors to see the interior of the arena. But these proposals 
 have come under fire from preservationists who worry that the Garden will  
overwhelm the Farley building, much as the Garden replaced Penn Station more  
than 40 years ago. 
“We’re looking for a well-designed, separate and distinct train station,”  
said Peg Breen, president of the _New York Landmarks Conservancy_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/new_york_landmarks_cons
ervancy/index.html?inline=nyt-org) , a private preservation  group. “We do 
not want the Garden to swallow the station.” 
Not to worry, state officials say. “This is, first and foremost, a  
transportation project,” Mr. Foye said. “The goal is to create something that is  
consistent with Senator Moynihan’s vision of a public space that can accommodate  
550,000 daily commuters and still have room for growth.” 
After work is done on the Farley building, the developers would move east to  
demolish the old Garden and allow for the renovation of Penn Station, with  
separate waiting rooms for Amtrak and for Long Island Rail Road passengers. New 
 Jersey Transit would be the largest single transit tenant in the Farley  
building. The street-level part of the station would include two corridors  
running from Seventh to Eighth Avenue, several levels of stores and possibly a  
major department store in a 10- to 12-story base. 
The developers also plan to renovate Vornado’s tower at 2 Penn Plaza and  
erect two skyscrapers, with one rising up to 1,400 feet, the other about 1,100  
feet, according to executives who have seen the plans. On the lower levels, the 
 towers, which would be completed in 2018, would have several 
80,000-square-foot  floors for a financial institution interested in a trading complex. 
The developers are also talking to city officials about an alternative plan  
that would permit them to transfer development rights to nearby properties so  
that the skyscrapers would not have to be so tall. Under this scheme, the  
developers would also be able to start construction of other office buildings  
before the new arena is  completed.




************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.

=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org
To Unsubscribe: http://lists.railfan.net/rshsdepot-photo/unsub.html

------------------------------