By Stephen Jacob Smith 4/08 10:15am

Planes Trains & Automobiles

At $3.7 billion, Santiago Calatrava's World Trade Center PATH terminal will be the world's most expensive subway station when completed.

Municipal Art Society Thinks Calatrava Deserves a Second Chance

Santiago Calatrava does not have the best reputation when it comes to designing practical public works. The Valencian architect has achieved great success in winning design commissions across the globe—especially for public works projects like bridges, train stations and cultural centers—but has also attracted criticism for his budget-busting designs.

Mr. Calatrava is practically a persona non grata in Valencia (he is now based in Zurich), where the leftist Esquerra Unida political party has started a website called Calatrava te la clava—loosely translated as “Calatrava bleeds you dry”—on which it accuses the architect of making 100 million euros off the Valencian City of Arts and Sciences, a cultural complex that is widely seen as a symbol of excess, built during Spain’s boom years but now a drain on the government’s finances as it undergoes a period of fiscal austerity. Read More

By Stephen Jacob Smith 2/27 5:02pm

Planes Trains & Automobiles

"It was controlled by a bunch of rich developers," David Gunn once said of Moynihan Station.

Former Amtrak President David Gunn Still Hates Moynihan Station

David Gunn was never a fan of Moynihan Station. When he was president of Amtrak during the early George W. Bush years, he pulled the railroad out of the project, which seeks to recreate the glory of the old Pennsylvania Station in the James Farley Post Office across Eighth Avenue. At the time, costs were the stated reason: Amtrak was expected to contribute to its new home, and Mr. Gunn said that the railroad had more pressing needs.

Current Amtrak President Joseph Boardman picked the project back up in 2009, and though it’s largely unfunded, Amtrak still intends to go through with the move. This, Mr. Gunn told The Observer this afternoon from his home in Nova Scotia, would be a mistake. Read More

By Stephen Jacob Smith 2/19 4:50pm

Planes Trains & Automobiles

With the LIRR diverting some trains to Grand Central, Penn Station could see Metro-North trains if the MTA goes through with West Side Access.

West Side vs. East Side (Access): Upper West Side May Get Metro-North Stop

East Side Access, which will give Long Island Rail Road commuters the choice of arriving at Grand Central Terminal in addition to the current terminus at Pennsylvania Station, may get all the buzz and billions in capital funding, but it’s the Bronx and the West Side that may be getting new regional rail stations.

West Side Access, as the plan is being called, would involve building a number of new stations within New York City, on the West Side and the Bronx, which would see direct service to Penn Station operated by Metro-North Railroad. The plan has been under consideration for decades, but will finally be added to the MTA’s next five-year capital construction program due out in 2014, according to Newsday. Compared to the $8.24 billion East Side Access project, West Side Access would be downright cheap: in the “hundreds of millions of dollars,” according to MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/01/12 4:41pm

Making History

The end of the beginning. (NYC-Architecture.com)

An Unfortunate Anniversary: 50 Years Ago, a Failed Fight to Save Penn Station

By now it is received wisdom that the city’s preservation movement got its start the day Penn Station was torn down, and it has been galvanized ever since “to put a stop to the wanton destruction of our greatest buildings” by “would-be vandals” of the real estate trade, as a protest ad published 50 years ago tomorrow once loudly declared in The Times.

Both sides are still at it, but The Times’ Building Blocks columnist David Dunlap provides a tantalizing window on how it all began, including a glimpse at the above ad an a protest that followed on Seventh Avenue, a doomed fight that shocked generations into action. Read More

By Matt Chaban 7/10/12 11:32am

Planes Trains & Automobiles

17 Photos

Moynihan Station Goes Retro

Inside the Retro-Futuristic Moynihan Station: Newest Plans Are a Throwback to the Old Post Office

Back in May, Amtrak invited bigs from both sides of the Hudson, Albany and D.C. to come celebrate the start of phase one construction on Moynihan Station—even Rosario Dawson, train aficionado, was there. Yet more striking than the silver screen star were the new renderings for Moynihan Station that Amtrak showed off.

Not just the banal concourses of Phase 1 that have bandied about before—nothing new there—but honest to god interiors of the grand train hall meant to restore Penn Station to its former glory inside the old Farley Post office. In a bid for both historical preservation and cost savings, the roof of the post office will no longer be ripped off and replaced with a new glass ceiling, but instead the existing one, with its massive steel trusses will be preserved. Read More

By The Editors 4/10/12 7:17pm

opinion

Preserve Buildings, Not Districts

The sad saga of the old Pennsylvania Station is nearly a half-century old, but its legacy continues—and rightly so. Every New Yorker should know this tale of woe, how an extraordinary piece of architecture was destroyed in the early 1960s to make way for an undistinguished office tower and sports arena.

The city’s landmarks preservation movement came about because of what happened to the old Penn Station. In the decades since, beautiful buildings have been spared the ravages of “progress” and entire blocks have been preserved thanks to the landmarking process.

The Bloomberg Administration has expanded on these preservation efforts by increasing the number of historic districts citywide from 64 to 107. Now, as the administration nears its end times, it wants to add or expand eight districts, which would affect more than 3,000 buildings.

Preservation of historic buildings clearly is important. Read More

By Matt Chaban 2/08/12 6:11pm

Kimmelmania

Half time?

To Save Penn Station, Boot Madison Square Garden to the River

Despite his lack of formal design training, Michael Kimmelman has excited many readers, both architecturally adept and not, with his focus on urban issues. The Observer has begun to hear some grumbles, however, that that is all he cares about—bike lanes here, old housing projects over there, riverfronts a world away. What does he think of the Atlantic Yards apartment buildings or the World Trade Center Memorial. Won’t he weigh in on some capital-a Architecture already?

Well, today, as always seems to happen, he has done us one better. Read More