A New Vision for Penn Station

John Hill | 9. 六月 2026

Proposed Eighth Avenue elevation (Visualization: PAU)

Amtrak, the US Department of Transportation, and Penn Transformation Partners, the master planner appointed to the project last month, have unveiled design renderings for the much-needed redevelopment of New York's Penn Station, the busiest transportation hub in the Western Hemisphere.

Leading the design for Penn Transformation Partners (PTP), the joint venture led by Halmar and Skanska, is PAU | Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, the New York firm of Vishaan Chakrabarti. Before founding PAU in 2015, Chakrabarti worked at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, NYC Department of City Planning, and SHoP Architects; in each place he envisioned alternative futures for Penn Station, the infamously crowded and confusing transit hub squeezed beneath Madison Square Garden (MSG). In 2013, for example, Chakrabarti and his fellow SHoP partners presented a vision for Penn Station that involved moving MSG to another site as a means of creating a “bright, airy and easily navigable” main hall, a contemporary version of the McKim, Mead & White masterpiece that succumbed to the wrecking ball in the 1960s.

A decade later, in 2023, Chakrabarti and PAU were still looking to transform Penn Station, but this time without moving MSG. In a proposal for the then New York State-led project (it was taken over by the federal government in April 2025), the ASTM/HOK/PAU team revealed renderings that gave a cohesive appearance to Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, predicated as it was on the demolition of a theater along Eighth Avenue that is part of MSG. The removal of the theater would allow for a grand entrance along Eighth Avenue, opposite the Farley Post Office/Moynihan Train Hall, and a larger main hall—two elements that are part of PAU's current design for Penn Station's transformation. While it looked like Donald Trump's takeover of the project last year would favor the Grand Penn Community Alliance's proposal, which would have involved moving MSG and creating a park in its place, the selection of PTP last month points to less demolition and a potentially faster timeline, with construction set to start next year and completion targeting 2034.

This week's unveiling of the latest design proposal for Penn Station's transformation comes with a series of before-and-after images. These pairs of images are presented below, moving from the exterior to the train hall, concourse, and platform inside the station.

Existing aerial view of cylindrical MSG, looking east (Photo courtesy of PTP)

Aerial view with MSG and square structure surrounding it as part of proposed Penn Station (Visualization: PAU)

Existing view looking south down Eighth Avenue from 31st Street (Photo courtesy of PTP)

After view showing a new entrance to Penn Station at Eighth Avenue and 31st Street (Visualization: PAU)

Existing Eighth Avenue elevation, seen from the steps of Farley Post Office (Photo courtesy of PTP)

Proposed Eighth Avenue elevation showing a large glass facade in place of the demolished MSG theater (Visualization: PAU)

Existing view from Eighth Avenue and 33rd Street looking east (Photo courtesy of PTP)

After view showing a new entrance to Penn Station at Eighth Avenue and 33rd Street (Visualization: PAU)

Existing concourse (Photo courtesy of PTP)

After view, showing expansive train hall beneath the footprint of MSG (Visualization: PAU)

Existing 32nd Street corridor in Penn Station (Photo courtesy of PTP)

After view of 32nd Street corridor (Visualization: PAU)

Existing platform 7 (Photo courtesy of PTP)

Platform 7 after some of the “scores of columns” are removed (Visualization: PAU)

This section perspective illustrates the Eighth Avenue facade, the multi-story train hall below MSG's cylinder, the concourse down one level from the street, and the platforms down one more level. (Visualization: PAU)

The unveiling also includes diagrams showing the functioning of each level, presented below from the platform level up to the street.