nyc-architecture.com — In 1963, one of New York City's finest buildings was demolished to make way for a new $116M sports arena and entertainment complex. Pennsylvania Station, the monumental 1910 Beaux-Arts masterpiece was leveled, and replaced with the fourth incarnation of Madison Square Garden. Here are some images of the old Penn Station...
Jul 30, 2006 View in Crawl 4
doantJul 30, 2006
we have some great old stations in the Netherlands but this one is really beautiful. reminds me of a station in Berlin. the people in the 60s did some strange things to old buildings. In Groning ''a city in the Netherlands'' there was a beautiful sealing was hidden in the 60s by a lower sealing to make it more functional and modern. nobody knew that it was there until they removed the sealing in 2000 .. they restored the old sealing and now it looks great. to bad that other buildings did not survive those ... modern times take a look at the station on this link<a class="user" href="http://stationsweb.brinkster.net/station.asp?station=groningen">http://stationsweb.brinkster.net/station.asp?station=groningen</a>
fascfooJul 30, 2006
The ban was indeed revoked after a big uproar.
logik00Jul 30, 2006
i would much rather have the old penn station than msg.msg sucks as a venue, the knicks suck, the liberty suck, and the rangers pretty suck too.
lunarworksJul 30, 2006
Toronto's suffering from this sort of arrogance these days.They're tearing down all kinds of stuff to put up big, ugly, generic condos in the downtown. Also, there's a famous piece of modernist architecture from the '50s along the DVP, the Bata headquarters, that the new property owner is going to tear down to build a religious centre.
pentominoJul 30, 2006
Huge? Not in the places that count. I visited once, and took a train in from New Jersey. It was like the stairwell at a hotel, but with thousands of people rushing to work around me.
sprinceJul 31, 2006
while I agree with you about the cathedrals and the point of cost productive architecture, in truth the empire states building is a pretty ugly industrial building.
hruntingJul 31, 2006
>> It also seems to be a testament to civilization. How will we be remembered? Philip Johnson said: "It is no wonder to me that whole civilizations are remembered by their buildings; indeed some only by their buildings."It's ironic that you use Philip Johnson to drive home a point about glass skyscrapers. Philip Johnson is responsible for some real travesties in skyscraper architecture, including the AT&T building in New York City and the Pittsburge Plate Glass Company building in Pittsburgh.While I don't think architecture today is suffering, I do think that building today is. There used to be a time when corporations and municipalities would use architecture to define their image, and they hired the great architects to do it. McKim, Mead, and White was one such firm, but there have been plenty of firms even into the 60s and 70s that did the same thing in a different vernacular. Nowadays, though, it's rare to see the great architect commissioned for a building and not see the final design compromised by engineering, business, or *gasp* public opinion. Witness the current mess being made of the World Trade Center master plan. Part of that is the mass commercialization of the business of architecture, but I think more blame rests on the shoulders of those responsible for actually seeing the building through to fruition (value engineers, they're called).
hruntingJul 31, 2006
There was no real reason to build a train station that grandiose back in the day as well. The reason it was done that way was to create a sense of awe and accomplishment in the people who walked through it. That same sort of thing is done today with a different type of transportation hub, the airport. There are plenty of airports out there that are truly just functional airports, but that doesn't stop cities from building new airports (eg. Denver) or refurbishing old airports (Washington, DC) in order to create that same sort of awe.
pepegsayApr 14, 2007
You're right. Anything else to say?
razicopApr 18, 2008
ah i liked it, thanks!