The Convention And The Commute

After a lot of worrying, it seems that most commutes during the convention have been pretty easy. Some areas, especially Penn Station and Grand Central, are thick with police presence, but others, like Times Square, have had unusually empty sidewalks - when the protesters aren't around. Of course, this is probably due to the fact that many people have left the city, letting Gothamist feel like the city is a ghost town, in some parts. Newsday reports that vehicle consultants are Christmas in August". Gothamist did enjoy the Daily News' race between three reporter across midtown to see who could get places faster in the middle of the Republican/ media/ police/ portester scrum, though.

And in extremely exciting news, Nicholas Ouroussoff, the new architecture critic at the NY Times, writes about the new Penn Station design, basically calling on politicians to start the project already. Designed by David Childs (the head architest of Freedom Tower at the redeveloped World Trade Center), the new station will have platforms that will have natural light streaming onto them and a swooping glass roof that will reach into the sky, not to mention glass floors so you'll be able to see trains coming into the station underneath you. Ouroussoff writes that the structure is "stunning" and feels like it's "propelling you to the future," and closes with:

The present administration has always seemed to look suspiciously at city life. The supposed war between urban and suburban values has become as much a clich� of political life as the division between "blue'' and "red'' states. The resurrection of Penn Station, even in a new form, is something we should all be able to agree on.
Signing off on the project would be a concrete gesture of good will that could not be measured in political platitudes.

If you go to Childs' firm's site, Skidmore Owings Merrill, launch the site, and click on transportation projects, you can access more photos of the new Penn Station design.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on September 2, 2004 11:46 AM

Comments [rss]

Linus

Of course none of this would be necessary if they hadn't pulled the first one down.

"We want and deserve tin-can architecture in a tin-horn culture. And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed." - Farewell to Penn Station, N. Y. Times, Oct. 30, 1963

Jess

A minor and friendly correction: because Mr. Ouroussoff left our local paper to become your architecture critic, you might want to identify him from now on as Nicolai, not Nicholas!

Kevin Walsh

Year after year, they keep banging the new Penn Station drum. It's not happening: the Post Office isn't giving up the space. I really believe they'll start the 2nd avenue subway first, and I don't believe that has much chance either.

And really, it's too far west anyway. 9th Avenue is 2 blocks west of midtown.

preservationist

Does anyone remember a conflict about using JAF for the rail station? (My mind forgets stuff sometimes.) I thought it had something to do with the notion that once JAF goes to a private entity, the historical societies might not be able to do anything to stop subsequent sales and / or "remodeling" or "reconstruction" to the site.

miss representation

While is may be exciting that Ouroussoff wanted to update us on the status of the new station, perhaps you should also note his tone differed significantly. Even though very little remains between the current status and actual project inception, it is also a stasis that has dragged now for several months to years, and it unfortunately looks less likely than more. I admire y'all's willingness to try and be positive about everything, but I would characterize it as more dismal than exciting -- if only to try and prompt more action in contacting Amtrak, elected officials, etc. But that's probably where we differ: I would think that saying 'exciting' would induce people to be lazy and assume everything is just peachy, whereas Ouroussoff seems to be saying it is distinctly the opposite. When an architect holds a press conference (that no one attends) to try and get a project off the ground, it is a drastic step. It is particularly shameful considering the effort Sen. Moynihan put forth to put the deal in place. Bloomberg and Doctoroff act like the West Side will fall into the Hudson if the Jets don't get a stadium, but they are church mouse silent when it comes to improving the largest transit hub in the country (a fact that probably astounds Europeans who travel through it).