Quote:
Originally Posted by fountainhead
It's an issue of a building's or neighbrohood's continued successful functionality. I think only when it's obvious that these two entities have outlived their usefulness can we consider replacing them.
I am also disheartened to see the Hotel Pennsylvania go. It's a handsome, solid building and the area will be left that much poorer with fewer hotels adjacent to Penn Station.
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It's
exactly for the reasons you stated that these buildings are demolished. There's a reason so many older buildings in NY have been converted to residential, and it's not the housing shortage. As far as outliving usefulness,
anything can be used for something. The building replacing the hotel may include a hotel itself. (Likewise, the area and the rest of the City is experiencing a hotel boom - new and modern rooms that won't result in lawsuits for its owner). Penn Station is the busiest transportation terminal in the country, the most accessible and centrally located terminal in the tri-state area. It should have been a solid commercial core for the City years ago, but things are just now starting to change. The Pennsylvania Hotel that stands now is not the same hotel of years ago. Preservationists don't even care to save it.
If you want old for old's sake, just walk around Manhattan. The older buildings outnumber the new to the point there's no comparison.