3 ms·

what is the "penn state story"?

• ghaff 11y ago
  Where Pennsylvania Station in NYC (and Madison Square Garden) sits today was once a grand station building designed by McKim, Mead, and White. When Penn Central went bankrupt, the air rights were sold off and the railroad station was moved completely underground. The demolition of the old Penn Station was widely regarded as essentially cultural vandalism and arguably played a role in a shift of attitudes toward a more preservationist mindset. (Others argue that this storyline is an oversimplification and there was growing pushback about 60s era urban renewal in any case.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Station_(New_York_City) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Station_(New_York...
• nerfhammer 11y ago
  Penn station used to be as magnificent as grand central, but was torn down and replaced by a mire of grimy tunnels. It wasn't the original owner's fault, they were going bankrupt and were being forced to sell off their assets https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Station_(New_York_City)#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Station_(New_York...
• officialchicken 11y ago
  As most Robert Moses stories go, it's about car culture and using highways and other physical barriers to enforce some bad socioeconomic policies - which was very common around the world at the time. In the end, they ripped down the old iconic station to build arguably the ugliest sports stadium in the world (Madison Sq Garden) and equally unimpressive #1 Penn Plaza. Note that the tracks and platforms haven't changed much since 1905 with the exception of the demolition of the "Northern" yard and highline when they build the Javitz center. The new WSY will be build atop the existing platforms... so 3 iterations of station on top of unchanged train platform in a bit over a century.