Tom Wright, Vishaan Chakrabarti, Andrew Lynn and Polly Trottenberg addressed the various infrastructure projects required in the region at the RPA Assembly.
“There were major project updates at the “Crossing the Hudson” panel, which sought to address the fundamental challenge of improving transportation across (and under) the Hudson to connect New York and New Jersey. Tom Wright, president of the RPA, kicked off the panel by showing how New Jersey added 65,000 new cross-Hudson commuters from 1990 to 2010 and stood to add another 75,000 from 2010 to 2040. (By another estimate, it would be 110,000 by 2040 if you include New Jersey commuters going to all five boroughs.) Forty-three percent of current commutes happen via bus and a new Port Authority Bus Terminal (PABT) is desperately needed. Additionally, if one track is lost on the current 106-year-old rail tunnel under the Hudson, Penn Station can only handle six trains during a peak hour (as compared to 24 otherwise).”
“A new PABT is also essential to the trans-Hudson transportation question; the current station will require replacement in 15 to 20 years due to structural deterioration, said Andrew Lynn, director of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ)’s Planning and Regional Development Department. (Lynn sometimes holds meetings with local officials and stakeholders in the PABT, using the shaking walls to drive home his point.) The PANYNJ has about $3.5 billion set aside for the terminal, but despite numerous attempts to formulate a plan over the years, none have been successful. The PANYNJ is effectively “pushing the reset button” on the project, and while the group will learn from past failures, “we’re really starting over,” he said. (Gordon suggested expanding the current PABT upwards by building off the current structure. This would expand capacity while minimzing local impact.)”
“However, Polly Trottenberg, commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT), countered that “global cities are not building big bus terminals”; rail is much more efficient. “One enormous bus terminal” is not the solution, she said, citing the failings of Robert Moses and how “we don’t think that way now.”
“Lastly, the panel touched on the replacement and expansion of Penn Station. Vishaan Chakrabarti, founder of Practice for Architecture Urbanism, who has put forward a plan to adapt the existing structure, explained his plan to move Madison Square Garden to the back of the old Farley Building, allowing the adaptive reuse of the current Garden’s superstructure for a new train station that would make the neighborhood a “world-class address.” (ReThink Studio, who was also present at the Assembly, has critiqued aspects of this plan.)
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Port Authority Bus Terminal to Get Total Reset and Other Breaking News From Annual RPA Conference, The Architect’s Newspaper