Doesn't work well? You must be joking. Grand Central serves over 60 million passengers a year, 30th Street Station serves 4.5 million. With the completion of the East Side Access project that will increase dramatically.

The platforms are darker than 30th St because they are underground.

Anyone who calls GCT dingy needs to get their prescription checked and the station handles an order of magnate more passengers than 30th with relative ease.

I agree but MSG was never moving because of the Dolans. It won't be now either with the renovation for a long time. No way the Dolans will easily give up their super convenient location right above Penn for a less convenient one without major incentives.

Regarding the plan to put the college in the annex, I disagree with that. That would rule out any future move of MSG and rebuilding of the current station after the renovation has lost its luster. Farley itself doesn't excite me after seeing some of the most recent renderings. It is hardly the super impressive station that a rebuilt Penn could be. The recent renderings were quite unimpressive IMO.

30th street station can't hold a candle to the ornate headhouse/train sheds of the grand European stations.

I wish GCT had a train shed, but NYC is just too dense and land is too scarce for that.

Penn station was a crime, but it is even more so today that they won't rebuild it and move MSG (blame the Dolans). Farley will never be a replacement for Penn, especially since it won't be taking over the entire building. The recent renderings showed an unimpressive and rather small atrium design.

Agreed. I was just in Italy and blown away by Milano Centrale.

Maybe swap can be done in the future since Javits will eventually have to go. The space for a grand hall at Farley is limited by the building and landmark requirement for new elements ( the glass canopy) not to be viewable from street level. Regardless it will be many more years before MSG can be moved so investing in Moynihan and interim improvements to Penn is the only realistic option right now.

Agreed, that is a beauty.

Are they demolishing madison square garden?

^ They could but won't happen anytime soon. It's just had a major renovation. Plus I expect MSG to be gone in 15-30 years time, considering the urge of development that will surge after the Hudson Yards take full fruition.

That's why I said Related should have spent that time trying to sway them. I think they had a better shot than with trying to get BMCC to move. Dolan decided to move ahead with renovation in part because Related and Vornado weren't getting anwhere with the Penn Station plans. And while the current MSG renovation looks ok, that's only from the inside - its still the mess it always has been from the outside. But maybe that is the one good sign, no really significant alterations to the outside because Dolan sees a way out in the future. We could only hope.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/env_...cp053m_eas.pdf

The Garden will probably be demolished within 10-15 years. The Dolans are only renovating the interiors; something they do every 15 years or so anyways.

MSG sits on 6 million square feet of development rights, with no height limits. The land is worth far more than the arena itself, so they will eventually sell. They just need to find a new location.

They also need to hope that the new mayor doesn't take the arena by eminent domain. There have been rumblings of this.

^ The supertall plans have been floating around for MORE than a decade now, and I know that has to do with the Dolans, but who's to say 15 years doesn't become 25 years. Remember MSG has been critically HATED since its inception in 1964. It has sustained the wrecking ball for 49 years.

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/2013...foot-led-signs

Looks like they want to pretty up MSG with signs.

The article says they want to spend 1 billion dollars on the exterior elements and public experience outside the arena.

It appears to me that they are attempting to put lipstick on a pig.

Yeah, you can see some of the images in the pdf above.



http://therealdeal.com/blog/2013/02/...mmunity-board/

MSG’s push to stay put concerns community board

February 12, 2013

Wow, this may be one of the few times I agree with a Community Board.

Agreed. Hopefully MSG only gets the temporary permit, and is forced to move sooner rather than later.

Just like pumping half a billion dollars into an arena that will inevitably be torn down doesn't make sense?. Oh wait, sure it does... its called padding the value of the building to blackmail the eventual buyers to pay way for for the structure than what its really worth. Shrewd gentlemen.

The entire renovation costs nearly $1 billion. They aren't really doing anything to the exterior except for some new signs and entrances.

And, yeah, this is lipstick on a pig. They need to sell to Related/Vornado so this redevelopment can get going.

Crazy idea time.

Vornado owns 2 Penn Plaza and the Hotel Pennsylvania. Demo 2 Penn (nobodies going to miss it, unlike the Hotel Penn), and dump the airights from the hotel, existing 2 Penn site, and MSG onto the 2 Penn site. I'm talking a single landmark tower with 6-8 msf of space. Easily 100+floors, maybe even 200fl. Potential WTB territory.

Preservationists get to keep the Hotel Penn, the Dolans get to keep the MSG, the city gets a new WTB.:superwhip

The problem with the current incarnation of MSG is that it:

1. Brings huge crowds of people to an already overcrowded Penn Station.
2. Is holy-fuck-tier ugly.
3. Makes even the smallest upgrades to the Penn Station prohibitively costly.

To fix Penn Station (and in this case I'm only talking about making it a tolerable space, not restoring it to it's pre-violation glory days) the Garden absolutely has to go somewhere -almost anywhere- else, ASAP. In my opinion, the best location for the next MSG would be somewhere in the Far-West of Manhattan, such as a part of the Javits plot that will become available when the convention center inevitably goes, built on landfill in the Hudson River, or if a benevolent diety is on our side, maybe the future MSG could even replace the absolutely horrible PA Bus Terminal. :yes: