No delays for new terminal, Moynihan supporters beg.

Supporters of the Moynihan Station development project are begging New York officials not to allow the Station to go the way of the rebuilding efforts at Ground Zero.

A decade after plans to recreate the original Pennsylvania Station have been announced, complete with critically acclaimed designs by Skidmore Owings & Merrill, the City and State have yet to close the financing package for the project and have effectively abandoned the old designs.

Speaking at a Municipal Art Society panel discussion on January 25, Paul Goldberger, dean of the Parsons School of Design and an architecture critic with The New Yorker magazine, noted that the city had already been robbed of an architectural gem when the original Penn Station was torn down in 1964 and missed several chances to rebuild it in the past 10 years.

Now, he believes that the project should leave the drawing board as soon as possible, before too much public debate translates into mediocre designs and further construction delays the way it has downtown.

"A city deserves an entrance and what made this project extraordinary when it was conceived was that it was so logical," said Goldberger.

"It was a chance to correct the single greatest mistake in the preservation history of New York City. It was an opportunity to focus on infrastructure at a time when it was needed. And it was an opportunity to create a stimulating core for westward expansion."

But with the introduction of Vornado Realty and the Related Companies into the equation, the project is in danger of becoming too much of a commercial undertaking.

"I am not convinced that we will end up with something of [the same level] of architectural ambition [as David Childs' designs]," Goldberger noted. "But more troubling are the other questions on the table: Why do we no longer believe in the public realm and can only justify projects on a commercial basis? Why, with something like this, can we not make it happen?"

And while Goldberger and the other panelists, including Peter Stangl, former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and Maura Moynihan, Daniel Patrick Moynihan's daughter and director of the Friends of Moynihan Station, are desperate for the project to get off the ground, they worry about the developers' priorities in creating the new train station.

"The key issue will be what is driving the design: the desire to create public space or an indoor shopping mall?" Goldberger asked. "Retail has to be a significant force [in this], but if the final solution is that it takes precedence over the public space we will end up with an updated version of what we have. I want to make sure that we get something at least remotely close to what the city deserves."

According to Stangl, it is up to public officials to create another landmark destination out of Moynihan Station.

"My standard is Grand Central," he said. "It has to be a train station that functions well, that is beautiful on the inside and that makes you aware from several blocks away that you are approaching it. It can be a destination in and of itself."

"One has to hope that the developers, as well as the Mayor, have constructed a document that gives them authority to build a building that meets some standards. The trade off ought to be such that we get a station that is worth building."

But though she agrees with the need for a great public space to replace the existing Penn Station, Maura Moynihan has expressed her fear that setting the bar too high might take the project off the drawing board for good.

"We are starting from below zero. What we have is the worst that we could possibly imagine," she said. "We are in a time of [economic and political] crisis and t feel very grateful that the project is still alive. We must not allow [the desire for] perfection to preventing something from happening. We are still a few million dollars short and the existing public funds are not secure. They can be taken away at any moment for something else."

Moynihan believes that the City should start the construction process as soon as possible to prevent that from happening.

"We are very close to getting the jackhammers moving and it's harder to kill projects with a shovel in the ground than it is to kill projects that are just on the drawing board," she said.

The final designs for the Moynihan Station are expected to be revealed in the next few weeks.