moynihan station

January 6, 2021

Finally, Moynihan.

Viewed as one of the most heinous crimes to ever have occurred in American architecture, the demolition of Pennsylvania Station served as a turning point for historic preservation in the United States. With the destruction of McKim, Mead, and White’s Beaux arts masterwork, Penn Station’s underground tracks and modified mezzanines still survived, but only as a shadow of their previous selves. Gone was the light spilling through triumphant glass archways and elegant classically styled columns—a fitting gateway to New York that allowed one to enter “like a god.” Instead, one now “scuttles in like a rat,” navigating the subterranean labyrinth...

E Pluribus Unum: New York’s New Motto, Coming to a Station Near You

Leaders and high ranking individuals have always exerted their power by influencing the aesthetics around us. Grand Central is famous for its acorn and oak leaf motif, incorporated to please the Vanderbilts who used that symbolism as their family crest. The clock tower built at Waterbury, Connecticut’s Union Station is to this day one of the most iconic buildings in the city, but was only added to the station a year after construction had begun at the behest of the railroad’s president. In New York we have also seen an individual lending his personal touch to some of the state’s...

Welcome to the New Penn Station

Artist Joseph Pennell captures the romance of the original Pennsylvania Station in his series of railroad etchings titled The Commuters, Down to the Trains, and Hall of Iron. When it comes to lost landmarks, the destruction of the original Pennsylvania Station is one of the travesties of New York City history. More than fifty years later the “monumental act of vandalism” is still keenly felt, as every commuter “scuttles in… like a rat.” Despite the loss, there may be a consolation prize for us all. For many of the years I’ve been present on this Earth New Yorkers have debated...