A Crime is Committed at Penn Station

January 31, 1963, Vol. VIII, No. 15

Terminals In and Out

While neo-classic Pennsylvania Station awaits the wrecker's ball, Governor Rockefeller this month ushered in a new concept in terminals -- the avant-garde George Washington Bridge bus terminal. At the dedication the Governor said of the clean-lined severity of the construction by Italian architect Pier Luigi Nervi: "This bus station transforms the poetry of the architectural genius into reality." Next to the terminal, making use of the air right above the approaches to the bridge, is a huge apartment house project. But not all the architects were triumphant this month. Last week the City Fathers consigned to doom old-fashioned, monumentally elegant Pennsylvania Station, constructed in 1910 after the Baths of Caracalla. They did so by issuing a special permit which will enable the Madison Square Garden Center to build a monster sports arena and high-rise office building on the site. Action Group for Better Architecture (AGBANY) fought hard to preserve the old edifice from demolition, but failed. They cried out for grandeur but no one listened.

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