MAS Unveils Four Designs for Penn Station

If the four architects assembled on May 29 by the Municipal Art Society (MAS) could agree on one thing about New York City's Penn Station, it's Vincent Scully's oft-quoted refrain that "One entered the city like a god, [now] one scuttles in now like a rat." In envisioning a future for Penn Station and Madison Square Garden (MSG)—built upon the station and the main reason for this god-to-rat shift—the architects also were in agreement in moving MSG, but not necessarily where.

World-Architects attended the event—which aims to influence an upcoming City Council vote on the renewal time of MSG's permit, rather than providing practical solutions—and below we summarize the proposals in the same order they were presented.

H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture was not one of the original four teams invited by MAS in early April to reimagine Penn Station, but after Santiago Calatrava declined involvement Hugh Hardy and his team took on the challenge with a shorter time frame. Their proposal moves Madison Square Garden to an enlarged pier in the Hudson River a few blocks west of the station, connects to the High Line with a new walk/bikeway, and adds a bus terminal and 7-line subway loop in Midtown. Penn Station itself is fronted by a plaza with bioswales on Seventh Avenue, is open and airy inside, and features tiered roof gardens overlooking the James Farley Post Office on Eighth Avenue.

The proposal of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) moves MSG to a site south of the Farley building, thereby enlarging the site of Penn Station from two blocks to four. A large glass dome anchors the center of the station over new high-speed rail platforms. Surrounding the dome is a green roof and four towers that anchor the corners of the station. In what may be the proposal's (if not all of the scheme's) most far-fetched idea, a habitable, bridge-like structure spans from tower to tower across the whole site, also topped by a green roof.

Penn 3.0, the scheme of Diller Scofidio + Renfro(DS+R), uses "intense layering" to add functions that aim to make a visit to Penn Station and the process of waiting enjoyable. They propose moving MSG to the west end of the Farley building, freeing up the two-block site for a "large, sponge-like mass" that is a complex network of platforms and ramps whose legibility is aided by its openness. Through the addition of cultural, office, and leisure activities to the vertical building, DS+R see Penn Station as a "city within a city."

SHoP Architects ended the festivities by wheeling out a huge model (the only one of the four architects) and unfurling a banner at one point to impress the audience at the TimesCenter. In their scheme, MSG is moved to what is now the Morgan Postal Facility, and the High Line is extended to provide entry to the arena and link the elevated park to "Gateway Park" on the Eighth Avenue side of Penn Station. They envision the station as a large open space capped by an undulating trellis that filters light to the interior; more than the other teams, SHoP strives to recreate the grandeur of the McKim, Mead & White Penn Station, though without any classical references.