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In recent weeks, Governor Andrew Cuomo has expressed increasing frustration with the state of affairs at the station. A "Summer of Agony," he's now predicting, for a "literally crumbling" station not expected to improve "for the foreseeable future."
- On Tuesday, the governor called for the creation of a task force dedicated to coming up with an "aggressive action plan," and is proposing that the state wrest control of Penn Station from Amtrak. His other big idea has been slammed by the Times architecture critic as offering "hardly more than cosmetic changes," a view echoed recently by the paper's editorial board. --- That proposal involves turning the decaying James Farley Post Office Eighth Avenue into a new train hall for Amtrak, which would help only 20 percent of the station's 650,000 daily commuters, according to an Empire State Development study. Penn, meanwhile, would get wider concourses, new security tech, and a slightly raised ceiling fit with LED lights meant to imitate a blue sky.
- One of the most ambitious visions—a cooperative effort between an architecture firm, the National Civic Art Society, and an urban planning think tank—would have Penn Station rebuilt in its former image, while crucially revising the Gateway Plan to reimagine the transit terminal as a through running station. --- The restoration of this godly entrance has been the project of Richard Cameron, the principle designer at Atelier & Co, since the 1990s. In his "Plan To Rebuild Penn Station,". He says, would be restoring the original station's enormous open space, including its classical columns, high vaulted ceilings and thick glass floors that brought light four stories underground. The middle phase, a project of a separate think tank, would see the construction of a modern transit network connecting the station's various trains.
- The third phase would be to redevelop the area in and around Penn Station, with the intention of making the station a tourist attraction similar to Grand Central Terminal. --- While Cameron has championed the plan for decades, the idea was given new life after Cuomo announced his intention to overhaul the decrepit station last year. The National Civic Art Society has since thrown its support behind Rebuild Penn, campaigning for the original design while assisting with some "modifications to suit the needs of the present day." "One of our ideas is to convert the original carriageways into covered arcades that could house outdoor markets, cafes, various retail stores," said Justin Shubow, president of the National Civic Art Society.
- That price tag doesn't include the relocation of Madison Square Garden, another hurdle that proponents of the Rebuild Penn plan see as conquerable. The arena is owned by the Madison Square Garden Company, which since 1982 has enjoyed a yearly tax exemption—last year it was nearly $50 million—in exchange for not relocating to New Jersey. But Cameron speculates that "if someone let them take the tax credit, they’d move in a second." The most pressing obstacle right now, according to advocates, has to do with Albany. "It's amazing how defeatist their attitude is," said Cameron. "It's entirely possible to do this, and it really is a question of someone like Cuomo deciding that this is going to be his legacy project."
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