1990s In the early 1990s, U.S. senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan began championing a plan to rebuild a replica of the historic Penn Station, in which he had shined shoes during the
Great Depression. He proposed rebuilding the station in the Farley Post Office building. At the time, existing facilities at Penn Station were overcrowded and the
United States Postal Service (USPS) was planning to relocate much of its operations from the Farley Post Office.
Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum (HOK)'s plan, which was made public in May 1993, called for a 120-foot parabolic arched roof, rising above a passenger concourse within the post office's old sorting room. Moynihan sought $100 million for the project, and U.S. president
Bill Clinton included $10 million in federal money for the station as part of a bill to provide relief for victims of the
1994 Northridge earthquake. and the
Senate only approved $40 million, bringing the total amount raised to $50 million. Opponents, including Republican representatives
Frank R. Wolf of Virginia and
Harris W. Fawell of Illinois, said that the funds had not been authorized in Amtrak's budget, and expressed concern that the city and state might not be able to raise matching funds. The $10 million appropriation was used to fund design work, and the additional $40 million was used to buy supplies and renovate existing facilities. The
Empire State Development Corporation, an agency of the New York state government, created the Pennsylvania Station Redevelopment Corporation in 1995 to oversee the purchase and renovation of the building. The corporation, led by a bipartisan group of New York state government officials, initially had $300,000, but raised $670 million within ten years. Officials of the corporation were reviewing plans by 1998, when the
Clinton administration included $11.7 million for the project in a budget submitted to Congress. By that March, officials had formed an agreement in which the USPS would retain its operations in part of the Farley Building while giving over another portion to the new train hall. Three months later, the Pennsylvania Station Redevelopment Corporation selected SOM and
Parsons Brinckerhoff to lead the engineering team that would design and build Penn Station facilities within the Farley Building. An agreement on the general layout was reached in December 1998. At the time, the train hall was projected to open in December 2002 at a cost of $315 million.
David Childs of SOM presented another design for the Farley train hall. Childs's design would have involved demolishing the post office's sorting room floor and replacing it with a multilevel concourse that allowed views of the tracks. A skylight would have been installed; the original trusses of the roof would have been preserved, and the remainder of the roof would have been taken apart. An intermodal hall would have extended from 31st to 33rd Street, bisecting the Farley Building. One wall of the intermodal hall would have included a curved
truss measuring high. Congress provided $60 million in additional funding later in 1999. U.S. senator
Charles Schumer had unsuccessfully sponsored a bill that May, which would have formally named the facility "Daniel Patrick Moynihan Station", in honor of his colleague who was retiring.
2000s By February 2000, the budget had increased to $788 million, of which $188 million would be required for upgrades to existing infrastructure. At the time, construction was expected to start later the same year. In early 2001, the
Staubach Company and
Fraport were selected to develop the Farley train hall as a
joint venture; the start of construction had been pushed back yet again to late 2001. The USPS had pledged a $150 million contribution to the Farley project, but was facing financial problems by June 2001. Following the
September 11 attacks in 2001, the USPS halted funding for capital improvements to its facilities, although the agency maintained that it was still interested. The USPS facility at
90 Church Street in Lower Manhattan had been damaged by the attacks, and many of 90 Church Street's operations had been moved to the Farley Building. Negotiations resumed in mid-2002. By that October, the New York state government had arranged to buy the Farley Building from the USPS for $230 million, with the USPS vacating much of the building. Amtrak was intended to be Moynihan Station's main tenant, but withdrew in 2004, citing that it could not pay rent at the new station because of financial shortfalls. State officials continued to search for partners in the train hall development, and had selected two anchor retail tenants by that October. Another plan was presented by
James Carpenter Design Associates, in collaboration with HOK, in 2005. The Carpenter and HOK plan simplified the concourse into a single level and added numerous skylights, reminiscent of the original Penn Station. This plan would have involved turning part of the post office building into a hotel with windows overlooking the interior courtyard. NJ Transit would have replaced Amtrak as the main tenant. This plan for Moynihan Station would have cost $818 million and contained for rail uses, for retail, and for the post office. The Empire State Development Corporation selected
Vornado Realty Trust and
The Related Companies to operate the retail space. The project would be constructed in conjunction with the
Access to the Region's Core project, which would have expanded NJ Transit service under the Hudson River. The
14th Dalai Lama, a longtime friend of Moynihan, expressed support for Moynihan Station. The Farley Post Office building was sold to the New York state government in 2006 in the hope that Moynihan's vision would be realized. Support also grew for "Plan B", an expansion of the project's scope, under which
Madison Square Garden, which is directly atop Penn Station, would have been moved to the west flank of the Farley Building, allowing Vornado Realty to construct an office complex on the current Garden site. By 2009, the Garden's owner
Cablevision had decided to
renovate its current location instead of relocating the arena. That September, after months of negotiations involving Senator
Chuck Schumer, New York governor
David Paterson, and PANYNJ Executive Director
Christopher O. Ward, Amtrak agreed to return as a potential tenant. In exchange, some aspects of the design were changed, and Amtrak was to take a part of the retail revenue. == Construction ==