Once again, my apologies for no post yesterday. Couldn’t find enough time to be effectively witty and I wouldn’t want my name associated with a shoddy product. The blog post today is going to keep with my eclectic topic selection and enter the realm of architecture and planning. As a former student and still current lover of all things city planning, you should expect some such posts from time to time. So I bet most of you are looking at this picture to the left and thinking, oh what is that an old tyme picture of Grand Central Station? Some fancypants railroad station in Luxembourg!? My friend, you are so very wrong. This 1962 photo is of the interior of old Pennsylvania Station, just a year before it was demolished in a frenzy of “out with the old, in with the new” urban renewal projects in New York City.
I, like the majority of you, knew nothing about the former Penn Station. It wasn’t until New York: A Documentary Film, a 14 hour PBS mini series directed by Ric Burns (brother of documentarian Ken Burns) and chronicling the history of the world’s greatest city, changed all that. This 1999 documentary, coupled with my love for maps and SimCity, was one of the driving forces behind my initial desitre to go into city planning. But thanks to this Ric Burns masterpiece and the chilling, tempered, masterful narration by David Ogden Stiers, I now know about the tragic destruction of Penn Station, the fiery personalities of progressivists like Al Smith and Fiorello LaGuardia, and Robert Moses’ dictator-esque rise to power through various NYC agencies. If you love New York City, you have to watch this documentary (also if you love baseball, you have to watch Ken Burns’ Baseball). Ric Burns also added another episode after September 11th.
![Penn Station](https://i0.wp.com/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/Penn_2163723600_1bb4d3f9c6_o.jpg/320px-Penn_2163723600_1bb4d3f9c6_o.jpg)
Penn Station, 1911
Built in 1910, the original Pennsylvania Station occupied two city blocks between Seventh and Eighth Avenues and from 31st to 33rd Streets. In the style of grandiose European rail stations, with high sky-lit ceilings and Greek columns, Penn Station was a gorgeous specimen, and faithfully served Midtown Manhattan with regional and local rail service for 53 years. Then…urban renewal happened. For awhile, “urban renewal” and “urban revitalization” were mistakenly used interchangeably, but after the full impact of urban renewal was made apparent, it often meant a death knell for historic landmarks and neighborhoods. 1960s urban renewal projects, especially in New York, were supposed to bring the city and it’s outdated infrastructure into the modern age. And while there were a number of very important infrastructure projects undertaken in the period between 1950-1980, it usually meant out with the old and in with the new, often with no respect for the history or architectural beauty of the buildings that were being replaced.
One such project almost saw the demise of Grand Central Station, but instead saw the construction of the 60-story Pan Am building (now the MetLife building) atop the architectural wonder. I honestly don’t know which would have been worse, since a skyscraper being built on top of Grand Central is already an insult to its history. But the 1950s were all about construction. In the years following WWII, you couldn’t put up skyscrapers fast enough. Real estate was being eaten up by the day, and to developers at the time, Grand Central was just taking up valuable space.
I guess that in the era of Robert Moses (read about him, he was a world class asshole, though he started out with good intentions) and urban renewal, this was a minor victory, since in the end the beautiful Grand Central Station was preserved. However, Penn Station’s fate was much different. Despite outcry from historians, architects, the public, and like-minded planners trying to preserve the landmark, the powers that be had made up their minds and went through with it’s demolition in 1963. Until I watched New York: A Documentary Film, I had no idea that there had been a previous Penn Station, and I feel as though it wouldn’t have been quite as big of a tragedy, if what replaced it wasn’t one of the ugliest buildings I’ve ever laid eyes on (New Brunswick Gateway Center included). Of course I’m talking about Madison Square Garden, home to the New York Rangers, Knicks, as well as copious concert and event spaces. My apologies to any Rangers or Knicks fans reading this, since I know all you know is MSG, and it must be quite beloved like an ugly duckling, but now that you know what was in it’s place, even you have to admit it’s an absolute tragedy.
![Demolition of Penn Station](https://i0.wp.com/www.leveesnotwar.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/28PENN.falkxl.jpg)
The destruction of Penn Station, 1965
Take a long look at that photo. Taken in 1965 as the original Pennsylvania Station was razed to make room for a redesigned, underground station, sports arena and office complex, all designed in the beautiful International style of the 1960s….. Completely torn down, with it’s ornate decorations shipped out to rot in some scrapyard in the Meadowlands. Home to the Rangers, Knicks, and St. Johns NCAA basketball since it’s completion in 1968, it’s design has led it to be known as one of the loudest arenas in both the NHL and NBA. It’s also been home to a cavalcade of other sports, events, and teams throughout its 44 year tenue (I still need to get my WNBA season tickets!). Below, is the atrocity that now sits atop the new Penn Station. This is what replaced the gorgeous New York landmark.
![Madison Square Garden](https://i0.wp.com/www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/Madison_Square_Garden_ad.jpg)
THIS is what replaced old Penn Station.
I don’t care how big of Rangers/Knicks/Liberty (ha.) fan you are. This is a travesty. Vincent Scully (not to be confused with Vin Scully, the voice of the Dodgers), one of the most vocal critics of the 1963 destruction of old Penn Station said of it’s incarnation: “One entered the city like a god. One scuttles in now like a rat.” So, like my rant about Batman Begins, this is sort of a public service announcement. My attempt to drop some knowledge about a topic that I think everyone needs to know about. I can only hope that when it comes time for a new Madison Square Garden, or a new Pennsylvania Station, that the designers pay homage to the beautiful landmark that came before it.