HomeDiagramsDatabaseMapsForum About
     

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Discussion Forums > Buildings & Architecture


Reply

 
Thread Tools Display Modes
     
     
  #1  
Old Posted Oct 21, 2009, 2:31 PM
Yankee's Avatar
Yankee Yankee is offline
Martian
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: District of Columbia
Posts: 748
Smile NEW YORK | Pennsylvania Station Original Building | 1910-1962

I thought I would create this thread as a tribute to the original NYC Pennsylvania Station Building brutally demolished in 1963. I think this paragraph from Wikipedia nicely summarizes that horrible act:


The demolition of the original structure — although considered by some to be justified as progressive at a time of declining rail passenger service — created international outrage. As dismantling of the grand old structure began, The New York Times editorially lamented:

"Until the first blow fell, no one was convinced that Penn Station really would be demolished, or that New York would permit this monumental act of vandalism against one of the largest and finest landmarks of its age of Roman elegance."

Its destruction left a deep and lasting wound in the architectural consciousness of the city. A famous photograph of a smashed caryatid in the landfill of the New Jersey Meadowlands struck a guilty chord. Pennsylvania Station's demolition is considered to have been the catalyst for the enactment of the city's first architectural preservation statutes.


source: Wikipedia


Please feel free to post images of the original building, facts, opinions and anything that pertains to this topic.

IMO the building should be commemorated in some way and I think the best way would be to construct an exact replica of it, either in NY or in a different city at some point in the future when demand for rail has increased to the point where a new large station is needed... - this of course will absolutely never happen, but it's good to have dreams On the bright side, maybe in a parallel Universe the original Penn Station was never destroyed
__________________
Before one surrenders to the hands of destiny one might consider the power of the human spirit and the force that lies in one's own free will.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #2  
Old Posted Feb 9, 2013, 7:03 PM
marvelfannumber1's Avatar
marvelfannumber1 marvelfannumber1 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 209
Man, I can't belive it has been almost 50 years since this marvel was destroyed


Btw how is it possibile nobody has replied to this topic untill now ?
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #3  
Old Posted Feb 9, 2013, 7:43 PM
Amanita's Avatar
Amanita Amanita is offline
Crane Goddess
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Posts: 2,229
Yeah, even in my One Penn Plaza thread people were going on about Penn Station, even though One Penn Plaza wasn't even built on the site, just alongside it.
__________________
"Build me to the heavens, and Life never stops"
"Live as if the world were as it should be, to show it what it can be"
-Angel
"Prayers are fleeting and wars are forgotten, but what is built endures"
-Ambassador DeLenn, Babylon 5
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #4  
Old Posted Feb 9, 2013, 8:17 PM
jg6544 jg6544 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 1,113
Destroying Penn Station to put up the hideous monstrosity they replaced it with was pure vandalism. And leaving the tracks, waiting room, and platforms where they did turned them into a rat's nest. At least Grand Central survived and now that it has passed it's 100th birthday, I think it's safe.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #5  
Old Posted Feb 9, 2013, 8:42 PM
Dac150's Avatar
Dac150 Dac150 is offline
World Machine
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: NY/CT
Posts: 6,749
Quote:
Originally Posted by marvelfannumber1 View Post
Btw how is it possibile nobody has replied to this topic untill now ?
I think the sentiments towards what happened are universal here and need not to be belabored, as they've been expressed in previous threads. I mean, what's really left to discuss?
__________________
"I'm going there, but I like it here wherever it is.."
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #6  
Old Posted Feb 9, 2013, 9:52 PM
vandelay vandelay is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 871


In my wildest dreams, they move MSG to the Far West Side, into a 21st century space, with much better acoustics, sight lines, etc., and they build old Penn Station following the original McKim, Meade & White design, except with 21st century's advances in amenities, expertise, methods and materials.

They can't even move into the Farley Post Office, so forget about it.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #7  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2013, 2:35 AM
THE BIG APPLE's Avatar
THE BIG APPLE THE BIG APPLE is offline
Khurram Parvaz
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: NEW YORK
Posts: 2,424
It's been 4 years and now someone finds this.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #8  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2013, 12:21 PM
marvelfannumber1's Avatar
marvelfannumber1 marvelfannumber1 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 209
I found some decently rare color pics of the station durning the demolition. It's quite an interesting look into the past:









Reply With Quote
     
     
  #9  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2013, 4:32 PM
Jonboy1983's Avatar
Jonboy1983 Jonboy1983 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: The absolute western-most point of the Philadelphia urbanized area. :)
Posts: 1,721
^^^ I love those posters draped over the facade of that gem of a building that read, "New Madison Square Garden sports complex and redeveloped Penn Station." By "redeveloped," they meant butchered. Granted, I think someone said it was the railroads' fault for not investing in the building (i.e. keeping it up to standard er something along those lines). Still, the city lost a gem. Besides Phillly, Chicago, and DC to name a few classic grand stations that remain fully in tact to this day, the rest of the grand stations went either abandoned or demolished all together. Pittsburgh's union station still stands, but Amtrak moved out of there in the late 1980s and now occupies an architectural ass crack behind it. If they're serious about having Pittsburgh serve high-speed trains someday, I think they're going to need a new station. What is there now is way too small and beyond substandard. The same goes for Cleveland. Granted, neither city serves nearly as many trains or people that they did in the heyday of rail travel. I guess we could at least partially blame the decline in rail travel for the demise of some of our grand railroad stations in our larger cities...

Back to this discussion, NY Penn makes(or made) Philadelphia 30th Street look lame and pathetic! (I think that is saying something; I love 30th Street!)
__________________
Transportation planning, building better communities of tomorrow through superior connections between them today...
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #10  
Old Posted Feb 11, 2013, 3:10 AM
ThatOneGuy's Avatar
ThatOneGuy ThatOneGuy is offline
Come As You Are
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Constanta
Posts: 920
The massive size of this killed it. If it were smaller I think it would have been saved, but business is business. Also, people were getting bored of stuffy brick buildings in that time and wanted new modern towers to be around.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #11  
Old Posted Feb 11, 2013, 6:35 PM
hammersklavier's Avatar
hammersklavier hammersklavier is offline
Philly -> Osaka -> Tokyo
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: The biggest city on earth. Literally
Posts: 5,863
Crossposted from SSC:
Quote:
Originally Posted by hammersklavier View Post
New York Pennsylvania Station. Sadly demolished 1963.













All above images courtesy Wikipedia


Source


Two GG1s and an EP-9.
Source


Vandelay on SSP

The future? Moynihan Station out of the Farley Post Office across the street:

Wikipedia
__________________
Urban Rambles | Hidden City

Who knows but that, on the lower levels, I speak for you?’ (Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man)
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #12  
Old Posted Feb 11, 2013, 7:56 PM
aquablue aquablue is offline
BANNED
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 1,741
Ugh, too many philistines running the show at that time, and perhaps even now... The Dolans were allowed to renovate this POS arena without much uproar from the city, what a mistake.

This crime must be rectified some day.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #13  
Old Posted Feb 12, 2013, 4:39 PM
MolsonExport's Avatar
MolsonExport MolsonExport is online now
The Vomit Bag.
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Otisburgh
Posts: 44,713
Quote:
Been said a million times, and at least 1000 times by me already, but how could they? How fucking could they?

Reminds me of what I learned in Paris last summer: apparently after the revolution, Notre-Dame Cathedral was supposed to be flattened, but since they were too busy cutting off people's heads, things got delayed, and eventually saner heads prevailed.

Goddammit, (brings to mind the following) to think that de Corbusier felt that Paris needed to be remade as such:

providencejournal.com
__________________
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."-President Lyndon B. Johnson Donald Trump is a poor man's idea of a rich man, a weak man's idea of a strong man, and a stupid man's idea of a smart man. Am I an Asseau?
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #14  
Old Posted Feb 12, 2013, 5:23 PM
jg6544 jg6544 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 1,113
Quote:
Originally Posted by MolsonExport View Post
Been said a million times, and at least 1000 times by me already, but how could they? How fucking could they?

Reminds me of what I learned in Paris last summer: apparently after the revolution, Notre-Dame Cathedral was supposed to be flattened, but since they were too busy cutting off people's heads, things got delayed, and eventually saner heads prevailed.

Goddammit, (brings to mind the following) to think that de Corbusier felt that Paris needed to be remade as such:

providencejournal.com
The post-WWII era will be known for a lot of things, but civilized good taste isn't one of them.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #15  
Old Posted Feb 12, 2013, 8:14 PM
hammersklavier's Avatar
hammersklavier hammersklavier is offline
Philly -> Osaka -> Tokyo
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: The biggest city on earth. Literally
Posts: 5,863
It was built to last forever and only lasted fifty years. The death of Penn Station was probably the postwar period's greatest architectural crime against humanity.
__________________
Urban Rambles | Hidden City

Who knows but that, on the lower levels, I speak for you?’ (Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man)
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #16  
Old Posted Feb 12, 2013, 8:28 PM
THE BIG APPLE's Avatar
THE BIG APPLE THE BIG APPLE is offline
Khurram Parvaz
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: NEW YORK
Posts: 2,424
Quote:
Originally Posted by aquablue View Post
Ugh, too many philistines running the show at that time, and perhaps even now... The Dolans were allowed to renovate this POS arena without much uproar from the city, what a mistake.

This crime must be rectified some day.
As with post 9/11 chaos people wanted the Twins built BIGGER and TALLER than before. Same should be done here, with OLD Penn Station rebuilt with exact blueprints, except bigger and better. PLUS since it's Midtown and no much space left, throw in an Art Deco thousand footer to complement the Station and the ESB. At this point that is the ONLY thing that can rectify the architectural loss inhibited by ruthless savages.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #17  
Old Posted Feb 12, 2013, 8:41 PM
marvelfannumber1's Avatar
marvelfannumber1 marvelfannumber1 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 209


I agree, I have no idea why rebuilding an architectural loss is so taboo in the US nowadays, when several lost beauties in Europe were rebuilt after the war.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #18  
Old Posted Feb 12, 2013, 8:59 PM
vandelay vandelay is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 871
Classic piece of architecture writing from Ada Louise Huxtable, who died last year and who is remembered for articles like this:



NB: This is the before and after of the Times Tower:




Last edited by vandelay; Feb 12, 2013 at 9:09 PM.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #19  
Old Posted Feb 13, 2013, 12:53 AM
PhillyToNYC's Avatar
PhillyToNYC PhillyToNYC is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 92
While I agree that Penn Station should be rebuilt, the twin towers should not be rebuilt. It is "taboo" because those towers were a final resting place for well over a thousand people, some of which I used to have the pleasure and happiness of knowing and being friends with. Would I like to see the WTC again? Yes, but that is what pictures are for. I wouldn't be able to stand seeing the old Trade Center in person again just because it would be too much for me to handle. So in a sense, yes, Penn Station was a masterpiece, and should be rebuilt, but please do not bring the WTC into this discussion.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #20  
Old Posted Feb 13, 2013, 2:48 AM
ThatOneGuy's Avatar
ThatOneGuy ThatOneGuy is offline
Come As You Are
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Constanta
Posts: 920
It's not being rebuilt, not now, not ever. Just accept it's gone and you will be happy. There's a reason the preservation movement started and it's because of this one being lost.

When I went to NYC, everywhere I walked around was preWWII except for the maid CBD center. And functionalist buildings are necessary there. Like I said, the main reason for this one being demolished was the massive area it took up. Trains were also becoming more obsolete in that time, as air travel increased and highways were increasing. No need for such a big station when people were using less trains.
That space was better used to make business than to be useless showiness. Plus, buildings like those are really expensive to maintain. What if this one went the route of the Michigan Central Station?
Reply With Quote
     
     
This discussion thread continues

Use the page links to the lower-right to go to the next page for additional posts
 
 
Reply

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Discussion Forums > Buildings & Architecture
Forum Jump


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 10:08 PM.

     
SkyscraperPage.com - Archive - Privacy Statement - Top

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.