Quote:
Originally Posted by Submariner
To be fair, GCT was designed with that exact possibility in mind.
As for Penn...well, it was torn down because it was a.) inefficiently designed and b.) was extremely expensive to maintain, given the drastic drop in train travel in the 50's and 60's. Now, of course there should never have been a sh***y looking office building, or an even sh****er looking arena built on top of it; it should be common sense that as they city grew in population, rail travel would have again increased, but there was some pragmatism involved with tearing Penn down...
Thankfully, the license for MSG expires in nine years which means there is some hope that it will not be renewed and that a proper new Penn Station can be built.
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Well, it is the first time that I hear that the old Penn Station was inefficiently designed. When it was build, was the first time that the Pennsylvania Railroad entered directly to Manhattan, so it was done to be a grandiose as possible, state of the art station, with a layout that posibilitate the easiest way for people to board and unboard the trains and in general use the station.
The "new" Penn Station is not even new, it is just a huge downgrade from the previous one, that uses the same trackage of the old one and by no means it was done to be more efficient, but as cheap as possible, exchanging full of light, huge, grandiose spaces with a clear layout for an underground maze. If they could have been able to get rid of the station at all, they would, and just more easily construct the buildings.
The reason for demolishing it wasn't because it was inneficient, and not even because of the maintenance (although that did was a factor) the main reason was a real state deal, where the rents that precisely those sh***y looking office building and arena were to provide cash for a company that was losing more money by each year. Something that may only served to buy some time to that company, which ended up bankrupt just seven years after they tore down the station anyway.
While the old station was built to be the pride of New York, the new one become just the shame of it...
And this is what New York lost...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fileenn_Station1.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pe...att_Statue.jpg
http://www.shorpy.com/node/10243
Picture3 by
briansoldo, on Flickr