Winning Penn Station Redesign Features Trump’s Name
Renderings of the station redesign show the president’s name carved into a wall, raising questions and concerns.
Trump's name will feature prominently in the forthcoming redesign of New York City's Penn Station, according to official renderings released today, June 8.
A consortium of developers and designers has released the plans for the future Penn Station — a nearly $8 billion project overseen by the Trump Administration — days after Gothamist first published leaked renderings of the station's patriotic details.
Renderings for the forthcoming rebuild echo the president's long-held architectural preference for "classical" styles. They also detail several large American flags along the Beaux-Arts-inspired exterior of the building, gold-colored bronze railings, a terracotta city skyline, an eagle figure on the entrance facade, and a presidential seal with President Trump's name etched into a wall near the entrance.
Last month, the US Department of Transportation and Amtrak announced Penn Transformation Partners — a group of private companies and designers, including New York real estate giant Vornado and construction company Halmar — as the "master developer" for the project. The group's Trumpified station design was selected after a competitive process that began last October.
The winning design was helmed by the Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU) and its founder, Vishaan Chakrabarti, who shared his plans in a slideshow during a press conference this morning.
One slide showed the future station's 31st Street entrance with the name "Donald J. Trump" carved into the wall next to the presidential seal. The developers did not respond to requests to share this rendering with Hyperallergic.
In Monday's press conference, Chakrabarti described the inclusion of a presidential seal on a public building as “commonplace.” “ This is very, very common, and so we think that's much ado about nothing,” Chakrabarti said.
But the sitting president's name does not typically appear on the seal. Chakrabarti did not address this point during the conference, and a spokesperson for the developers did not respond to Hyperallergic's inquiries about why Trump's name was included.
Penn Station's concourse now (left) and after the expected redesign (right)
The new plan also addresses the aging station's structural nuisances, including by raising the height of Penn's notoriously low-hanging ceilings. It will also destroy the Infosys Theater at Madison Square Garden to install new elevators and escalators, and add more natural light to the station.
Last spring, the Trump administration took over the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority's (MTA) slow-going plan to remodel the Manhattan train station, a move endorsed by Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul. The administration then handed oversight of the project to Amtrak, a partially federally funded entity. Governor Hochul has repeatedly billed the transfer as a way to save New York taxpayers over a billion dollars.
But the decision also apparently allowed Trump to impose his design preferences over the station in line with his promise of “Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again.” The president proclaimed last year that federal buildings must be constructed in "classical" styles, including Neoclassical, Beaux Arts, Georgian, and Federal, a mandate that was met with widespread opposition from architects.
Since then, Trump has blazed through typical oversight processes as he razes the East Wing to make way for a golden ballroom and attempts to build his monumental triumphal arch.
The Penn Station rebuild is slated to begin in 2027.
