Preservation after the Demolition of Penn Station: A Panel Discussion

2013 Program Series: Fifty Years since the Demolition of Penn Station

Fifty years ago, New York suffered one of its greatest losses and most powerful wake-up calls: Penn Station’s demolition. Of its replacement, Vincent Scully famously said that while through Penn Station, “one entered the city like a god, one scuttles in now like a rat.” A generation of New Yorkers vowed to never let such a tragic loss occur again.

The original Penn Station, built by the renowned architecture firm of McKim, Mead, and White in 1910, stood for over fifty years as a masterpiece of the Beaux-Arts style and a monument to New York’s aspirations as a world capitol. In 1963 the station was demolished, a loss that was bitterly protested. The demolition prompted deep self-reflection on the part of our city, and was soon followed by the passage of New York City’s Landmarks Law.

This program will examine how the preservation effort in New York has evolved since then, with a focus on each mayoral administration. Panelists will include: Prof. Franny Eberhart, a director of the Historic Districts Council and Vice-Chair of the Historic House Trust; Anthony Robins, preservationist and author; Tony Wood, author and founder of the New York Preservation Archive Project, moderated by Andrew Berman, executive director of Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.