New York's Penn Station to get $8 billion remodel with columns, sunlight and Trump's name

By — Philip Marcelo, Associated Press Philip Marcelo, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/new-yorks-penn-station-to-get-8-billion-remodel-with-columns-sunlight-and-trumps-name Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter New York's Penn Station to get $8 billion remodel with columns, sunlight and Trump's name Nation Jun 9, 2026 6:48 PM EDT NEW YORK (AP) — When Manhattan's original Pennsylvania Station was demolished in 1963, it marked the undignified end to one of America's great public works, a monolithic Beaux Arts train terminal with Roman-style columns and a spacious central waiting area that was at the time the city's largest indoor space. In its place rose Madison Square Garden — home of NBA's New York Knicks and NHL's New York Rangers — while train commuters were forced underground into gloomy, claustrophobic, low-ceilinged corridors when the redesign was completed in 1968. READ MORE: New York faces first weekday of strike that shut down commuter rail system "Through Pennsylvania Station one entered the city like a god," the architectural historian Vincent Scully famously lamented. "One scuttles in now like a rat." But a dramatic new vision for the busiest transit hub in the Western Hemisphere calls for a return to the original station's grandeur from 1910. Renderings released Monday feature a rectangular stone facade lined with imposing columns along a grand entryway. Inside, a sunlight-drenched concourse boasts soaring ceilings more than 50 feet (15 meters) high in places. There are bronze finishes and other ornamental details, like a bas-relief of the city's famous skyline and a large station clock. Inside one entryway, an inside wall bears the seal and name of President Donald Trump, who had Amtrak assume control of the project last year after decades of political infighting among transit agencies and opposition to moving MSG from billionaire owner James Dolan. Trump has floated renaming his hometown station in his honor as he's sought to burnish his legacy through public works projects, from a massive new White House ballroom to a triumphal arch. For now, though, the name etched across the proposed grand facade would still read "Pennsylvania Station," according to the renderings. They were released by Amtrak, which owns the terminal, and Penn Transformation Partners, the design and development consortium picked for the project. Proposal aims to make Penn Station an icon again The proposed design draws from the ornate, Beaux-Arts design of Grand Central Terminal, the city's other major rail hub, as well as Art Deco landmarks like the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center, according to lead design architect Vishaan Chakrabarti. The vision, he said, is to restore Penn Station's place among the pantheon of the city's greatest landmarks. "There was this fearless embrace of ornament and decoration that in some ways we've lost," Chakrabarti said