One of New York's architectural treasures, the 1913 McKim, Mead & White General Post Office (officially the James A. Farley Post Office), awaits transformation into the future Pennsylvania Station, to be named in honor of the former New York senator who championed the project, Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
A bit of history first: The extraordinary former Pennsylvania Station designed by McKim, Mead & White, just across Eighth Avenue from the General Post Office, was torn down in 1964, much to the dismay of New Yorkers who lost an architectural treasure. The underground station that replaced it has been under continuous renovation since it was built, and has never been particularly accessible or noteworthy. "One entered the city like a god," the famous architectural historian Vincent Scully, wrote of New York's original Pennsylvania Station. "One scuttles in now like a rat."
The post office was constructed after purchasing the land from the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1913. Given the significance of both railroads and postal revenue in early 20th-century America, it made good sense to have these two important hubs facing each other across a broad avenue.
Fast forward to the 1990s, when this enormous space became not entirely needed by a postal service that had shifted much of its delivery methods to truck transport. The post office had already shifted much of its sorting to the nearby Morgan General Mail Facility, and the General Post Office moreover did not exactly make the best use of existing space. You'll notice this if you poke around a bit or walk around the entire exterior and peep in the windows.
If you tour the present post office, you will be astounded by the exterior with its grand facade declaring "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor glom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds," which Manhattan residents know to be true from the 24-hour retail and sorting operations at the facility. Pause to admire the Corinthian columns and grand staircase before entering, whereupon you notice the fascinating ceiling plastered with stunning seals of nations. Here the wonder stops, for the equipment and construction methods of the modern postal service has made much of the lobby look rather sad, when not hideous. From time to time, postal exhibits in a room off the lobby range from fascinating to charming to rather dumpy.
The late Senator Moynihan championed a revitalization project that would envision rail activity returning to a worthy 21st-century transportation hub, with a large naturally-lit glass enclosed atrium, as well as the world's largest media wall. Postal sorting operations would transfer to the Morgan facility, and the post office would retain a small retail presence. The late Senator Moynihan's daughter Maura formed the Moynihan Station Citizens Group in 2003, committed to the vision of the senator to create this new train station for New York City worthy of the people of New York.
Moynihan Station was designed by the celebrated architect, David Childs, and contracts were initially awarded, although construction has yet to begin. The most active transportation hub in the United States, the current underground Penn Station was never designed to handle the current daily traffic of 700,000 passengers. Working with Governor Pataki, Senator Schumer, Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg, Senator Clinton and President Clinton as well as many others, Senator Moynihan championed and then secured funding for this new station during his final years in the United States Senate. But the project involves the coordination of New York State, the US Postal Service, Amtrak, the Federal Government, the City of New York and others, which is always a complicated Herculean task in New York City.