SOM expands new york's penn station with brightly lit moynihan train hall

SOM has completed the moynihan train hall in new york, a project that expands the city’s pennsylvania station complex with a new 486,000-square-foot (45,150 sqm) hub. located within landmark james a. farley post office building, the ‘daniel patrick moynihan train hall’ is named for the US senator who originally proposed the project in the 1990s. the design brings light to the station’s concourses for the first time in more than 50 years, increases total concourse space by 50%, and restores the grandeur that was lost with the demolition of the original penn station half a century ago.

image by lucas blair simpson © SOM (also main image)

the original pennsylvania station was designed by mckim, mead & white in 1910. it was a skylit, beaux-arts masterpiece that celebrated travelers’ arrival to new york city. after its demolition in 1965, only its concourses and platforms remained, and they were all underground in a space downgraded to accommodate only 200,000 people. five decades later, the number of people passing through the station every day swelled to more than 600,000, while the farley building — also designed by mckim, mead & white in 1913, with a grand staircase and colonnade that echoed the firm’s design for penn station — had become 95% vacant.

image by lucas blair simpson © SOM

uniting travelers from the long island rail road, amtrak, the new york city subway, and the entire northeast region, the new train hall — located in the former mail sorting room — is designed with a dramatic skylight that traverses the entire space. the skylight is arranged in four catenary vaults. to support the structure, SOM uncovered the building’s three massive steel trusses, which had been invisible to postal workers a century ago, and chose to reveal them as a major focal point of the design.

image by lucas blair simpson © SOM

each of the four vaults is composed of more than 500 glass and steel panels that come together to form a moiré effect. at the edges of each vault, the panels thicken to sustain greater structural loads, while at the apexes, which span 92 feet (28 meters) above the concourse, the panels’ depth lightens to enhance the airy ambience of the space. the trusses are each equipped with new lighting fixtures that illuminate the train hall at night. on the middle truss, a new clock — designed by pennoyer architects and inspired by the analog clocks that were once prevalent at the original penn station — marks the center of the room.

image by lucas blair simpson © SOM

along the eastern wall, four large LED screens feature new york state imagery designed by moment factory, and help brighten the train hall at night. hospitality spaces — including ticketing kiosks and information kiosks designed by SOM, amtrak waiting rooms on the concourse level designed by rockwell group, an amtrak metropolitan lounge by FX collaborative, and a food hall designed by elkus manfredi — surround the space on two floors to establish an inviting experience that provides all the amenities a commuter will need. the signage and wayfinding identify the hospitality and platform entries by color to enable intuitive circulation through the station — an element that has largely been missing in the confusing corridors of penn station for the last 50 years.

image by lucas blair simpson | aaron fedor © SOM

moynihan station connects to nine platforms and 17 tracks that primarily service the long island railroad and amtrak. the station connects directly with the eighth avenue subway, and plans are in the works to connect the entire penn station complex, including moynihan station, to MetroNorth and AirTrain JFK. moynihan station is accessible through a variety of grand entrances. as part of the first phase of its construction, two new entrances on eighth avenue, designed by SOM, flank the farley building’s staircase, and lead directly into the train hall and the new west end concourse — a significant widening of an existing concourse that serves as a connection between penn and moynihan stations.

image by lucas blair simpson | aaron fedor © SOM

‘this is an incredibly important moment in the history of new york city,’ says SOM partner colin koop. ‘we’ve designed a place that evokes the majesty of the original penn station, all while serving as a practical solution to the issues that commuters in, to and from new york have endured for too long. by connecting to our architectural past through the adaptive reuse of the farley post office building, we are breathing new life into new york, and recreating an experience no one has had here in decades.’ see designboom’s previous coverage of the project here.

image by lucas blair simpson | aaron fedor © SOM

project info:

name: moynihan train hall
location: new york city, NY
area: 486,000 sqf / 45,151 sqm
architect: SOM | skidmore, owings & merrill
completion: 2020