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A new proposal for the renovation of Pennsylvania Station is officially on the table, and it includes returning to the train station to its pre-demolition Beaux Arts style and relocating the Madison Square Garden (MSG) arena.
The historic Penn Station was designed by McKim, Mead, and White, and was completed in 1910. It spanned Manhattan’s Seventh and Eighth Avenues and 31st and 33rd Streets, and was modeled after the Roman baths of Caracalla, a grand space intended for all.
The new renderings indicate a row of Doric columns lining the front of Vornado Realty Trust’s PENN 2 business center at the station’s Seventh Avenue entrance to create a classical facade. The commuter hall is reminiscent of that of the original station, complete with high ceilings, iron and glass entrances, and a replica of the original clock; it would be connected within the James A. Farley Post Office via an underground tunnel to Moynihan Train Hall.
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To create a public plaza the size of Bryant Park, the plan proposes leveling the current circular modern MSG building. In 2023, theManhattan Community Board only extended a five-year operating permit to the MSG—the shortest ever granted by the city—indicating a possible relocation so that the station can once again expand.
The Grand Penn Community Alliance (GPCA) presented its plans at the New York Historical on Tuesday, March 11. Alexandros Washburn, former New York City Chief of Urban Design, headed the campaign, which is funded by the Washington, D.C. nonprofit National Civic Art Society (NCAS), which advocates for classical architecture in federal buildings.
As a chief architect of the Moynihan Train Hall development project, Washburn estimates that the overhaul would cost roughly $7.5 billion, with $3.5 billion earmarked for the relocation of MSG. The estimated price tag is still “$1 billion less than the schemes proposed by New York State and Amtrak,” according to the GPCA’s website.
“What we’re doing here is ultimately a civic move,” Washburn told Hyperallergic.
As commuting to New York has increased rapidly, with more than 600,000 people passing through the station daily, the move to accommodate this expansion is long overdue. A “new” station unencumbered by the arena could stand to double current capacity to 48 trains per hour, along with new safety and accessibility features. Many who commute with regularity can cite countless issues and delays often due to wire- and signal-related issues. An addition to the station could also lead to the revival of old train lines.
The board of the NCAS, founded in 2002, includes Thomas D. Klingenstein, who is a far-right political scientist, a Trump ally, and board chair of the conservative Claremont Institute think tank—the latter of which donated more than $10.5 million to Republican campaigns and PACs in the 2024 election season.
The Penn Station proposal seems to continue President Trump’s executive order mandating a return to classical architecture for government buildings over modernist styles. The newly issued policy, titled the Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture executive order, is aimed at promoting a kind of civic architecture intended to “beautify public spaces” by emphasizing designs that “respect regional heritage and align with America’s classical traditions.”
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has pushed back against this order with a memo emphasizing “that mandating architecture styles stifles innovation and harms local communities.”
Earlier this week, the Black Lives Matter mural was dismantled in Washington, D.C. after Republican lawmakers threatened to cut millions in transportation funding. While the two projects are not connected, it is becoming increasingly clear that the American landscape, much like its political front, is rapidly changing—and that Penn Station may be next.
