Penn Station advocates to submit their own redevelopment plan

Alexandros Washburn, the executive director of the advocacy group Grand Penn Community Alliance, is so determined to see Penn Station rebuilt that he’s come up with his own proposal. 

The architect who led the effort to create the much-praised Moynihan Train Hall across the street from the much-maligned underground Penn Station plans to unveil his reimagining of the transportation hub at a press conference on Tuesday at the New York Historical Society. After presenting details of the plan to the public, the nonprofit group will hand the plan over to the state and federal government.

A former public works adviser to the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (for whom the train hall was dedicated), Washburn and the alliance are pitching the plan as a cost-effective and innovative approach to a more robust redevelopment of Penn Station than what the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Gov. Kathy Hochul have already proposed. Washburn’s plan calls for knocking down Madison Square Garden and relocating the venue. In its place would go a train hall that evokes the majesty of the original Pennsylvania Station, an architectural masterpiece that was demolished in 1963. The plan also includes the addition of a public park in the footprint of the arena along 8th Avenue.

The greatest challenge to such a plan will be convincing James Dolan and his family, the owners of MSG, to relocate the arena. The Dolans have not publicly expressed such a desire and renewed their license to continue operating the venue in 2023. The City Council, however, only granted Dolan a 5-year renewal, half the term of the previous permit and far shorter than the initial permit, which had a term of 50 years. The decision was based on votes made by two council committees. Council Member Erik Bottcher, whose district includes Madison Square Garden, noted the Council was unable to “determine the long-term viability of an arena” above the station and found that five years was “an appropriate term for this special permit,” the New York Times reported. 

Washburn, a longtime proponent of moving MSG, previously told City & State that a shorter permit gives the state more leverage in negotiations with the arena over the redevelopment of Penn Station and allows bold alternatives more time for consideration. The state’s own proposal calls only for interior renovations with new aboveground entrances and a glass shed that covers an unused taxiway to bring more light into the station – and Washburn does not believe that such a modest proposal does justice to Moynihan. “He would be disappointed or disgusted that, politically, we’re accepting such low standards for public works,” Washburn told City & State in 2023.