The new Moynihan train hall, unveiled on Wednesday by Governor Cuomo, is a sight to behold – a monumental-scale waiting room for Amtrak and LIRR pilots that could blink twice. Crowned with a 92-meter-high skylight, it is a view from the sky for passengers guided to the Penn Underground Station, the ugliest place in the Western world to catch a train.
The hall, an airy donut hole inside the James A. Farley Post Office building, is the centerpiece of a larger, $ 1.6 billion planned complex inside the Farley Building between Eighth and Ninth Boulevards and West Streets. 31 and 33. It will eventually include a knock on entrances, boulevards, subway links, waiting areas, lounges, shops and restaurants. Hall and Penn Station, one block to the east, jointly known as the Pennsylvania Station-Farley complex, will have 50% more competition space than the Penn portion alone.
It comes after three decades of ever-changing plans, since late 1980s senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan first dreamed of a magnificent replacement for the original Penn Station, which was shamefully demolished in the 1960s. started it and saw it in construction this year, despite COVID-19.
The train hall, which opens on Friday, is expected to reduce the congestion of rat nests in the hated Penn Station below Madison Square Garden, where 650,000 souls gather in a space built in the 1960s for just 250,000. LIRR passengers can now get on and off trains at both facilities, while Amtrak users will only use the new train room.
How well it works is yet to be seen until the first pandemic crushing of riders descends next week. But the strong roof of the hall will certainly be a success for the public.
The room at first glance seems smaller than the suggested renderings. It is also relatively commonplace, despite many expensive marble and wood – except for the wonderful ceiling.
Three monumental steel farms, remnants of the post office’s mail sorting room, divide the glass acre of the roof into four “parabolic” vaults, each comprising 500 glass and steel panels with a web-like design.
Let in more light than the roofs of the Oculus World Trade Center and Fulton Transit Center skylights. It is fascinating when the sun rises and gives a golden glow to the whole room.
But the unfinished appendix of the hall is a confusing maze of escalators, stairs, lounges and corridors. It’s hard to find the fastest way to Eighth Avenue, despite a sea of signs. If the old Penn Station had the “sound of time,” as revered writers called it, Moynihan could keep the sounds of people trying to figure out the way.
SOM project architects and politicians do Moynihan a service by constantly comparing him to the original Penn Station impossible to replicate. Sorry, guys, it’s not even close, despite a superficial resemblance. The Moynihan Hall should be appreciated for what it is – less than a masterpiece, but an excellent example of “adaptive reuse” architecture and a huge improvement over the Penn Station that we all love to hate.