Just in time for holiday travel, Amtrak and Vornado Realty Trust marked the completed transformation of New York Penn Station’s busiest entrance at Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street. The enlarged and fully rebuilt entrance expands its width by 50% at the nation’s busiest train station, provides natural light and air down into the concourse and features a fully ADA-accessible and safer experience.
“We are proud to roll out the welcome mat to our new, modern entrance for the 600,000 daily New York Penn Station visitors,” said Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner. “Having a direct, accessible entrance at 32nd and Seventh will improve the customer experience for all passengers as they can now take an elevator, walk down wider stairs and have an added, third escalator to help them enter or exit the station.”
The completely renovated entrance features: a new ADA-compliant elevator; three new transit grade escalators, replacing the original two escalators; wider sidewalks along the west side of Seventh Avenue between West 31st and West 33rd Streets; a new glass canopy allowing natural light into the station and monumental illuminated Penn Station signage that allows travelers to more easily locate entrances.
“Together, we have reimagined and transformed one of the world’s busiest transit entrances. Our collaborative effort with Amtrak has delivered something every New Yorker and every visitor to our city deserves,” said Steven Roth, CEO of Vornado Realty Trust. “The new entrance is safer, more accessible, more spacious and far more inviting for the hundreds of thousands of people who travel through Penn Station every day. Intentionally and systematically, we are transforming the PENN DISTRICT into the new epicenter of Manhattan — a remarkable place to live, work and experience the best that New York has to offer,”
Vornado led the overall design and constructing street-level improvements and the canopy above, while Amtrak constructed the improvements from the street to its concourse including the new ADA elevator. Foster + Partners, designed the dramatic new glass canopy and interior lighting feature, which creates a more inviting, open, and brighter environment linking the station below to the street.
