Far from Golden: Hochul’s Silence on Penn Station in her State of the State Address
This photo essay has been cross-posted and lightly condensed from our colleagues at RethinkPennStationNYC. The League has been collaborating with local advocates to speak out against redevelopment plans that include widespread demolition of buildings surrounding Penn Station since including the Penn Neighborhood on the 2022-2023 Seven to Save list. ReThinkPennStationNYC is proud to be a founding member of the Empire Station Coalition, which is a collection of more than 15 neighborhood and block associations, think tanks and civic organizations advocating for real and equitable solutions at Penn Station. The Empire Station Coalition shares these same values and is doing much to keep this debate open and before the public.
Black and white night photo of the original Penn Station. Red Xs indicate buildings that have already been demolished: The McKim, Mead and White-designed Hotel Pennsylvania (left) was torn down in 2023 and the original Penn Station (right) was demolished 1963-1967. The only building on the perimeter of Penn that the ESD, Vornado, and Governor Hochul would spare under current plans (marked with a green x) is the Equitable Life Assurance Building (Starrett and Van Vleck) on the east side of Seventh Avenue between 31st & 32nd Streets. Buildings currently at risk of demolition are marked with a yellow X, some of which are detailed below .
New York State and the Railroads Need to Ditch Destructive Plans for the Penn Station Neighborhood
Governor Hochul’s failure to even mention Penn Station and the Gateway Tunnels – the biggest infrastructure projects in the country – in her State of the State address last Tuesday is inexplicable. So much for her repeated claims that plans for Penn Station are of the utmost importance to her.
The Governor’s silence may indicate that she is embarrassed that an infrastructure project, vital to the city, the region, and the state, and costing upwards of $50 billion, has been hijacked by the status quo bureaucrats and transformed into a 1960s-style urban renewal project. While silent on the subject, Governor Hochul and the Empire State Development Corporation (ESD) hope to demolish the Penn neighborhood (including some sites not pictured above) and replace it with commercial supertalls — albeit this component of the project is presently on “pause” awaiting a rebound in the real estate market.
The Railroads (Amtrak, MTA and NJ Transit) also hope for an expansion below 31st Street by demolishing the same buildings in the Governor's and ESD's crosshairs. This expansion is unnecessary, outdated and extraordinarily expensive; all for an unneeded auxiliary station that requires “deep cavern” digging.
We, of course, favor the adaptive reuse and preservation of neighborhood buildings where appropriate. Buildings that have been identified for demolition under the Governor’s plan for the neighborhood include:
Photos by David Holowka, Captions by Andrew Cronson
The Stewart Hotel, 371 7th Avenue (Murgatroyd & Ogden/George B. Post)
371 7th Avenue was designed by Murgatroyd & Ogden with George B. Post & Sons as the 31-story Governor Clinton Hotel for the Canabbe Holding Corp. An underground tunnel was built to connect the hotel with the train station and subway. Murgatroyd and Ogden were also the architects of the Barbizon Hotel which was designated a New York City individual landmark in 2012. The Stewart Hotel is eligible for both the National Register of Historic Places and New York City landmark status. The striking design blends Romanesque and Northern Italian styles in a richly textured gift to the streetscape of the sort no longer made. The opening of the Stewart Hotel was attended by Jimmy Walker, Al Smith and Franklin Roosevelt.
Seven Penn Plaza, 370 7th Avenue (Sommerfeld and Streckler)
370 7th Avenue was designed c. 1920 by Sommerfeld & Steckler which was a prominent designer of store and loft structures which accommodated the growing industry of garment companies and furriers around Penn Station. 370 7th Avenue has been declared as National Register of Historic Places-eligible.
St. John the Baptist Church, 211 W. 30th Street (Napoleon Le Brun & Sons)
211 West 30th Street was designed c. 1872 by Napoleon Le Brun with a tower later added in 1891 to a design by William C. Schickel. LeBrun’s sons continued his firm and designed the Metropolitan Life Tower at Madison Square Park and nearly every firehouse commissioned by the FDNY in the late 19th century. The church complex is both National Register and NYC landmark-eligible.
The original Penn Station Powerhouse (McKim, Mead and White)
242 West 31st Street was designed by McKim, Mead & White for the Pennsylvania & Long Island Railroads to provide electricity, heat, light and refrigeration to the original Pennsylvania Station. The building is the largest remnant of the original station still standing. The building has been declared as eligible for both the National Register of Historic Places and New York City landmark status. The building spans eight bays, separated by nearly flat Roman Doric pilasters at the first three floors. The windows on the first floor are covered by projected iron grilles, a favorite feature of the McKim firm.
Fairmont Building, 239 W. 30th Street (Joseph C. Schaeffler - attr.)
241 West 30th Street was likely designed c. 1923 by Joseph C. Schaeffler for J.M. Heatherton. The building housed the offices of Heatherton’s publications as well as various furriers in its early years. The building was declared as National Register-eligible in Dec. 2018.
Other buildings, adjacent to those pictured above on 30th Street or east of the original Penn Powerhouse, house hundreds of residents (many of them senior citizens in rent stabilized units) and small businesses. The proposed demolition will also extend west of 8th Avenue.
The stated reason these buildings are being eliminated is because they allegedly constitute "blight" and are part of a "skid row." Whatever blight that possibly exists in the neighborhood is the horrendous fall-out from the approach to “urban renewal” that prevailed when the original Penn Station was being pulled down — not the buildings slated for demolition.
These buildings are also under threat because the Railroads want to expand Penn Station instead of streamlining and modernizing within the footprint of the Moynihan/Penn Station complex via through-running. There is an ever-growing consensus that the reason the Railroads oppose modernization — i.e., through-running — at Penn Station is they do not want to work together and to integrate operations.
This neighborhood should not continue to be at risk of demolition. The Governor and Railroads know there are far superior non-demolition alternatives.
Where the wise see opportunities to adaptively reuse or preserve the irreplaceable buildings surrounding Penn Station, the shortsighted resort to the wrecker’s ball. Regrettably, the Governor’s demolition plans not only include the buildings below, but also buildings to the east of the station not pictured above – the Gimbels Building and Sky Bridge and 417 Seventh Avenue, for example. We have opposed their needless demolition in previous releases and continue to do so.
Closing Thoughts
With buildings by some of our country’s greatest architects, we should be able to fashion a worthy solution to the long-running mess at 33rd and Seventh. We want a neighborhood that grows organically, combining the best of the old with the new. It should include affordable housing and improve upon and not remove existing homeless services provided in the neighborhood. It should also add and improve the public realm in and around the station. The ESD’s quixotic monolithic desire to have Class A commercial towers from river to river should be rejected as the anti-urban formulations of a body that shows little understanding of what makes a city great. The same holds for the Railroads' desire to expand the station to the south, which similarly would eviscerate a vibrant neighborhood, all because they refuse to work together.
Governor Hochul, the ESD and the Railroads need to move past the silence of Tuesday and come forward with a well-articulated plan for Penn Station that modernizes transit, provides for a worthy above-ground station and retires the destructive plan to demolish the neighborhood adjacent to Penn Station in favor of one that actually improves the neighborhood.
We have no quit in us. We can and will continue to work in 2024 for a Penn Station worthy of New York!
Contact:
Sam Turvey, Chairperson
turveysa@gmail.com
(201) 274-3109