This twelvemonth , for the first clip since it was built in 1968 , Madison Square Garden ’s operation permission is up for reclamation . Which mean that the fate of New York ’s most - loathed theodolite clusterfuck , Penn Station , is also all of a sudden up for discussion . This workweek , four architecture house represent sparkling , well - show conception for the Penn Station of the futurity . But are they doomed to repeat history ?
Madison Square Garden sit on the land site of what was once the largest railway station in the human race : Pennsylvania Station , a grand neoclassical temple built in 1910 that was demolish in 1964 , after only 53 years in cosmos . The public outrage that follow spurred the cosmos of New York ’s Landmarks Preservation Commission , though it did nothing to change the building ’s luck . “ If a giant pizza bandstand were aim in an arena zoned for such usage , and if studies showed acceptable dealings patterns and construction tightness , ” critic Ada Louise Huxtable acidly articulate at the time , ‘ the pizza pie base would be “ in the public stake , ’ even if the Parthenon itself stand on the choose site . ”
The proverbial giant pizza stand built in its place — a windowless entertainment mecca and a cramp , clammy cavern of a transit hub — was , at the clip , suppose as a very futuristic architectural solution to the job of an age metropolis . Today , the most real trouble is Penn Station ’s size of it : the number of passengers that move through the cavernous space has triple since the 1960s . It ’s a void in a piece of urban material already dense with featureless frontal and billboards . Sarah Goodyearpoints outthat Vincent Scully Jr. , the architectural historian , in all likelihood said it well : Through the honest-to-god Penn Station , “ one entered the metropolis like a god . ” Through the novel Penn Station , “ one opening in now like a rat . ”
So the chance to give it another jibe — third fourth dimension ’s a charm , right?—is tantalizing . To get the conversation start , theMunicipal Arts Societyinvited four New York firms to ideate what Penn Station Part III could search like . Look is the crucial give-and-take here , though : the problems of Penn Station are more complex than what it take care like . So why are we talking about it in term of aesthetic ? Everyone loves an image of a glimmering , sunlit building of the hereafter . But are beautiful rendering a sound basis upon which to solve a job that involves civil applied science , transit , zoning , and economic evolution ?
New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman has the most sensible solution to the problem , of course of study . Last week , hesuggestedrenewing Madison Square Garden ’s surgical procedure license for ten years , rather than the current plan of fifteen . A decade would give us just enough time to come up with a more serious-minded plan , involving stakeholder , experts on all William Claude Dukenfield , and case studies from other sites . And the designer , of course , who should n’t be vilified for their optimism . The question is whether we ’re capable of the chasteness and coordination necessary to think before we jump .
accord to a history of the 2d Penn Station compose by Eric Plosky in 1999 ( availablehere ) , most critics of the era were n’t affirmative . In 1950 , the editors at TIME magazinedescribedNew York ’s unique metabolism for architecture thusly : “ Nothing make a New Yorker happier than the sight of an old construction rich in memories of the yesteryear ; unless it is tearing the damn thing down and replacing it with something in chromium and plate Methedrine , with no tradition at all . ” Check out the four proposals below .
Diller Scofidio + Renfro , with Josh Sirefman , describe their formalist proposal as “ a city within a city , a porous and tripping - filled civic structure fill up with diverse unexampled broadcast that excogitate the hybridity of contemporary urban life . ” In range , it ’s interchangeable to the passage hub planned for San Francisco . Whether or not the sinuate curves and elastic structure back a well - plan system is up for debate .
“ A key , guileless Ticketing Hall is placed at the center of the land site , with dedicated vehicular drop - off and radial , pedestrian connections to the metropolis surrounding it , ” explain the architects at SOM . “ With all of these internet intersecting at Penn Station , its key hall would become the iconic gateway for near every visitant around the world … The blueprint will fully wash up its potential air rights but continue the full four block footing - plane solely for Public use . The raw emplacement for Madison Square Garden would be neighboring to , but not on top of , the major theodolite hub . ”
“ SHoP imagines an flourish main antechamber of Penn Station as a bright , airy and easily navigable space that delineate a center of a new destination district , Gotham Gateway , ” explain the architects . “ In plus to strike public computer architecture , the project pop the question significant security and rail electrical capacity betterment that come up to major penury at the existing station . ” The pro ? The core focus is join the High Line to the pedestrian orbit around the station , which would improve access . The confidence trick ? The “ towboat - in - the - park ” typology has n’t been very successful in New York thusfar . Public plazas in Midtown tend to end up as wraith township .
H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture would relocate Madison Square Garden to a wharfage on the Hudson River and expand the current Penn Station . Their proposal is the only to lie out the problem in terms of actual transportation - users , which is a heartening thing to see . “ The New Penn Station , including an eight - racecourse high - speed railing expanding upon to the south , adapt increase capacity and integrates biotic community and traveler comforts , including a newfangled 3 acre public park , retail complex , and 2 acre cap garden , ” the architects indite .
Architecturenew yorkurbanism
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