Thanks to the New Penn Station site for featuring my previous comment, above. I would like to add that the original lattice columns, which supported the glazed vaults of the main concourse, still survive for about half their height, concealed by fireproofing and metal enclosures, flanking the stairways down to the Amtrak concourse. When the Amtrak area went from brown brick to slick metal a decade back, some of the columns were briefly exposed and I photographed them.

At present they support floor construction of the MSG complex above. But if the Columbia preservation students' suggestion to remove the superimposed levels and open up the concourse to the Garden roof was implemented, they could be again exposed as iron-age ruins, or even as the basis for an evocative partial reconstruction within the larger volume.

As an aside, the idea of reinventing the Garden bicycle-spoke canopy as a new Concourse roof occurred to me also, some years ago, but I dismissed it as too crazy. The students should be praised for having greater courage and faith in their inspirations.