Competing Plan for Penn Station Redesign Announced by ASTM
Although Amtrak owns the building, the decision on which redesign plan to pursue was expected to be made jointly by the railroad and the states of New York and New Jersey, which control the M.T.A. and New Jersey Transit.
Civic leaders have been calling for a new Penn Station since at least the 1990s, when the former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan proposed converting the old James A. Farley Post Office building across Eighth Avenue into a train hall. That idea became a reality under former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, but it has done little to alleviate the crowded and dreary conditions at Penn Station itself. Efforts to renovate the train hub have been stymied by the presence of an arena on top of it, and for years officials have clamored for the Garden to relocate, to little effect.
Although other plans to renovate Penn Station have been proposed and then discarded over the years, unable to overcome bureaucratic and political hurdles, several city and state officials and leaders of influential nonprofits have signaled support for ASTM’s proposal. The bulk of any renovation would be funded by state and federal tax dollars.
Responding to the M.T.A.’s criticism, Peter Cipriano, the senior vice president of ASTM North America, said at a presentation on Tuesday that his firm’s proposal would be less expensive and that there was a clear plan to pay for it.
“Theirs is $7-billion-plus, and where the money for that comes from is completely unclear,” he said, referring to cost estimates for the M.T.A. plan, which have been as high as $10 billion.
Source: The New York Times
