Historic Preservation Appeal Could Delay Penn Station Redevelopment

New York City's much maligned Pennsylvania Station, set for massive redevelopment, may get a reprieve thanks to preservationists. As Kriston Capps writes, the state's Historic Preservation Office has proposed adding Penn Station, along with Madison Square Garden and 2 Penn Plaza, to the National Register of Historic Places—effectively slowing the proposed redevelopment of the area and, as Capps writes, "prolonging the misery for the travelers who filter through its begrimed concourses."

Ironically, the demolition of the original, opulent Penn Station was itself a catalyst for the modern historic preservation movement, as activists lamented the loss of the Beaux-Arts style terminal in favor of the current "dank, dark, dim, dismal, depressing, dangerous" incarnation. Most New Yorkers see the 1963 version of Penn Station as a failure, "a delightfully ill-lighted, incomprehensibly organized, low-ceilinged, viewless labyrinth," according to Choire Sicha and Tom Scocca. Yet some preservationists want the governor to reconsider the proposed plans for the station, calling on the state to preserve some of the buildings surrounding the terminal and historical elements in the station itself. The appeal could delay the redevelopment process as officials continue to debate viable plans.

As Capps sees it, the campaign to save such a "hostile" facility in the name of historic preservation should prompt policymakers and advocates to reconsider the "blunt tool that historic preservation has become."