What the Experts Say

Referring to the creation of a new Penn Station: "You don't get a second chance like this often. We must do it."

"The belief that good design is optional...does not bear scrutiny."

"There was no such act of vandalism in the history of New York City as the destruction of the original Pennsylvania Station."

On the current Penn Station: a "very inadequate subterranean substitute."

[Through Penn Station] "One entered the city like a god. Now one scuttles in like a rat."

[Photo by Michael Marsland.]

"vast enough to hold the sound of time.... It had the murmur of a distant sea, the languorous lapse and flow of waters on a beach...It was elemental, detached, indifferent to the lives of men. They contributed to it as drops of rain contribute to a river that draws its flood and movement majestically from great depths, out of purple hills at evening."

[Image: Thomas Wolfe by Michael J. Deas.]

"Judging by the constant crowds that go through there, it's clear Pennsylvania Station just can't handle the volume any more -- not to mention the fact that it's a dreary, subterranean failure."

"Thirty-one years ago, the shattered marble, travertine and granite columns, caryatids, gods and eagles of Penn Station -- modeled after the monuments of ancient Rome by McKim, Mead and White and built for eternity in 1910 -- were carted off to the Secaucus meadows, giving New Jersey undisputed title to the world's most elegant dump. Of the eagles that crowned the station's walls, a few tokens were reinstalled in front of the new Madison Square Garden, making the contrast between classical and cheesy terminally (pun intended) clear."

[Photo by Harry Heleotis.]

"I know our nation is still young, and sometimes still we lose sight of the enormous value of the history that is embodied in our buildings, our documents, our artifacts, our monuments. We must do better in preserving the past, and in building new buildings and monuments we capture our vision of the future, the enduring commitment we have to our freedom, and the public space that makes community more possible, and reminds us of our common humanity across all the lines that divide us.

That is what this building will do. I hope at this moment of great prosperity and optimism for the United States, we will use the example of this project to redouble our determination to build great buildings and dream big dreams for the future.

Again, I want to thank all of you who never gave up on this ambitious project. I want to urge you never to give up on it until it is completely finished. And on behalf of Senator Moynihan, Senator D'Amato, myself, and all others who will be out of office when it is finally done, I hope you'll invite us to the building dedication."

"One of the greatest buildings that has ever been built in the history of New York was being torn down for the most mediocre modern box imaginable."

[Photo by Allen Bukoff/Fluxus Midwest.]