When I was a practicing architect and a structural problem arose I would ask my engineer friend, Emmanuel Leon, for advice. Once I was designing a house which required a long span. In his pragmatic Filipino way he asked me, “Do you want it cheap or architectural?” (I wanted the latter and he designed an upside-down king post truss.) I thought of Emmanuel when I walked into Penn Station in New York recently. It was my first trip on Amtrak in several years, and I was looking forward to seeing the much lauded station hall, which is in the old Farley post office building. I was disappointed. For one thing, the space was small. My train had left Philadelphia’s Thirtieth Street Station (designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White in 1927-33), which has a majestic hall, and this space was puny by comparison. And the steel trusses overhead were definitely utilitarian rather than architectural (they had originally spanned the mailroom). I had read plaudits about the suspended clock in the center of the hall, designed by Peter Pennoyer. It is very handsome, and it highlights one of the main drawbacks of its surroundings; unlike the clock, or Thirtieth Street Station, for that matter, the new station has no sense of style. The generic architecture (designed by SOM) could be an office building lobby or a shopping mall just about anywhere. And unlike Thirtieth Street, which has long oak benches, there is nowhere to sit except a claustrophobic “waiting room.” So passengers sprawl on the floor. Not attractive. Did I mention that it’s called Moynihan Hall, after the great senator? The name is displayed everywhere, over and over again, as if that would make up for the pedestrian design. Moynihan, who had an eye for architecture, would wince.
MOYNIHAN HALL
Hello Witold,
I watch for your column daily. Glad to see it. As for the span and the station, without seeing it, I would imagine the lack of benches is to deter the homeless from lying upon them and camping out. And lest one might think that is heartless, the bigger picture of that scenario is lawsuits. I read the Daily Mail every day and of course it’s a lot of junk but the horror stories that come out of New York City are unbelievable. Also San Francisco. The poor and desperate population is growing larger and more desperate. The mentally ill are getting put out on the streets and people like us can only try to steer clear. Some of them know their rights. A lot of them have weapons. All a business can do about it is to make sure they keep moving.
We were in San Francisco for a few days last fall before we went farther south to Carmel. There are some amazing stores around the square and now you have to be buzzed in. That big downtown mall that we hadn’t been in in a few years….in Nordstrom I wanted to go to the restroom. I walked all over, even going to two different floors and never did I see a Directory. Here in Indianapolis I believe our Nordstrom still has a Directory near the escalators. I asked one of the several security guards and she had no idea where the women’s restroom was! Finally a man in men’s suits told me. We finally decided they don’t want the homeless who frequented the 1/3 now-vacant mall easily entering the store and going into the restrooms and cleaning up and potentially accosting the Nordstrom employees and customers who might be in there. It’s an eye opener and incredibly sad and I have a feeling there is no end in sight. We also saw a young man staggering down the sidewalk near us with zero clothes on. Others ignored him just like we did. Across the square we saw three young black men running from Macy’s with armloads of clothes on hangers. When I worked at Lazarus when we lived in Columbus OH…we called them “runouts.”
What wouldn’t I give to go to New York…we haven’t been in probably 12 years at least but now you think you probably have to be constantly looking over your shoulder, even in mid-town. And certainly never take the subway….a thrill we used to enjoy.
I hope you make it back to Philadelphia safe and sound! Hope you are doing well. I am hoping to buy a little watercolor painting on Sunday at an auction….have never done such a thing before. Rather apprehensive about it.