3/1/2024 0 Comments Penn station nyc oldOne especially punishing advert called out to train travelers to consider a Dodge. Dunlap quotes the famous architectural theorist and critic Lewis Mumford in saying, “One suspects that the subversion of McKim’s masterly plan was due simply to the desire to make the whole design an immense advertising display.” There were billboards and new clocks sponsored by Coca Cola, although immense timepieces had already been built into the original design. The other attempt at modernizing the existing station was to punctuate the interior with advertising. The $2 million addendum/bandaid was designed by architect, Lester Tichy and was almost universally despised, in part because the ticketing system, which was meant to make ticket purchasing instantaneous, actually could take hours. Penn Station was modernized with electronic ticketing in a “clamshell” hovering within the existing Penn Station. The original Penn Station was difficult to maintain, and with shrinking funds the management applied a stopgap. And in 1958, the pink granite and miles of skylights were fading. But the railroads had problems beyond cars in 1958, a National Airlines domestic jet traveled across the country in 5 hours. In 1956, construction of interstates began to “pick up steam”. In 1945, intercity railroad traffic fell below 50%. With highways came motor lodges, and the American tourist was suddenly, overwhelmingly a motorist. Signed by FDR in 1944, the bill directed $1.5 billon to new highways…etc Even before the war was won, FDR and his advisors where envisioning the rise of the automobile. Dunlop cites the Federal Aid Highway Act as the first true harbinger of doom for New York’s Penn Station. The American landscape was changing and so was travel. Photograph courtesy of the Library of Congress.īut the trains weren’t failing from some sudden breach of oversight. An image taken in 1962 by the Historic American Buildings Survey- and not a moment too soon.
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