Moynihan Train Hall

On January 1, 2021, New York City celebrated the completion of a long-held dream. The new Daniel Patrick Moynihan Train Hall, named for the visionary United States senator who proposed the project in the 1990s, opened its doors to New Yorkers and travelers from the Long Island Rail Road, Amtrak, the New York City Subway, and the entire northeast region of the U.S. It is one of the most monumental civic projects undertaken in the city in a generation, and transforms the way millions of people will interact with one of the world’s largest cities. Moynihan Train Hall expands the Pennsylvania Station complex with a 225,000-square-foot rail hub in the landmark James A. Farley Post Office Building. Situated across Penn Station between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and West 31st and 33rd Streets, it reverses the dark, overcrowded experience that so many commuters have endured for decades. It brings light to the concourses for the first time in more than 50 years, increases total concourse space by 50 percent, and restores the grandeur that was lost with the demolition of the original Penn Station half a century ago. The original Penn Station was a skylit, Beaux-Arts masterpiece designed by McKim, Mead & White in 1910. The adaptive reuse of the Farley Building – a landmark also designed by McKim, Mead & White in 1913 – represents the transformation of an underutilized and underappreciated building into a new, inviting front door for New York. It evokes the majesty of the original Penn Station – recreating an experience no one has had here in decades. The new train hall, located in the 31,000-square-foot former mail sorting room of the Farley Building, is designed with a dramatic skylight that traverses the entire space – much like the original Penn Station did in 1910. The skylight is arranged in four catenary vaults that reach 92 feet above the concourse. To support the structure, the architects uncovered the building’s massive steel trusses, which had been invisible a century ago, and chose to reveal them as a major focal point of the design. With a web-like structure, the bolted trusses add an extra sense of lightness to the train hall – establishing a modern look and feel while displaying the workmanship of neoclassical design. Even more than preservation, this architectural flourish is a rejuvenation, and an exemplar for the reimagination of historic buildings. The interior spaces of the train hall share a unified material aesthetic. Drawing inspiration from the existing, historic post office at the top of the Farley Building’s staircase as well as Grand Central Terminal, the interior is designed with Tennessee Quaker marble, a material that evokes that sense of warmth, calmness, and grandeur that are central to the design. The building, with entrances on Eighth and Ninth Avenues, as well as 31st and 33rd Streets, serves as a mixed-use anchor for the neighborhood. The Ninth Avenue entrance aligns directly with entrance to developments to the west to create one contiguous pedestrian experience.