New Yorkers, what is the old low-ceilinged space where the old Penn Station was is being used...

[brush]

Last edited Sun Mar 21, 2021, 11:48 AM - Edit history (2)

for now (not the original, architectural gem Penn Station)? It was an unpleasant space to wait for an LIRR train.

[Voltaire2]

1. It was rebuilt in 1994.

So I think the answer is “nothing”. It was replaced.

[brush]

4. It was a pretty big space. So it's just sitting vacant since the move to the PO space?

[Voltaire2]

5. Replaced as in the space it occupied was rebuilt and re-used.

So at least part of the new LIRR area exists where the old, dirty ugly depressing LIRR space was.

[brush]

6. Ahhh. Good. Glad to hear that. I lived on Long Island for a while in the '80s...

Last edited Sun Mar 21, 2021, 12:47 PM - Edit history (1)

and would take the LIRR into Manhattan sometimes if I didn't drive and that was not a good space to arrive in Manhattan in. I moved to Westchester County in the the '90s and would commute on the Metro North trains. What a huge and pleasant difference it was coming into Grand Central Station, a beautiful space befitting NYC, as opposed to that old Penn Station dump.

[Voltaire2]

11. it was the destruction of Penn Station that saved, sort of, Grand Central.

They still put the Pan Am abomination on top of it, but they had to keep GCS.

I commuted on the LIRR on and off for a while in the late 70's. That terminal was really awful.

[brooklynite]

2. Penn Station is still in full use.

Its just been expanded into the Post Office

[brush]

3. Oh, I know the Post Office across the street was re-purposed to try to re-capture...

some of the granduer of the original Penn Station that was torn down, I'm talking about the old LIRR ticketing room, waitng room and shopping arcade? It was a poor replacement for the original Penn Station but it was a very large space and I'm just wondering what was done with it?

[brooklynite]

7. Its still being used

The new station facility is only for Amtrak. The old station continues to be used for LIRR and NJT. There are planned renovations, but not radically changing anything.

[brush]

9. Thanks. That's what I was wondering about.

[Azathoth]

8. You mean the low-ceiling concourse all the way beneath Madison Square Garden?

Still there and running. The renovated post office is just an extension.

[brush]

10. Yeah, that space. Did they improve it at all?