Finally, after two decades in the making, the light is shining brightly on the James A. Farley Post Office conversion project, now known as Moynihan Train Hall as part of the Empire Station Complex. The 1913 Beaux-Arts post office building, across Eighth Avenue from Penn station, was originally designed by McKim, Mead & White and is being dramatically revamped by the architecture firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM). In a big construction moment, the iconic glass skylights are now being installed.
The new Daniel Patrick Moynihan Train Hall’s vast, 255,000 square-foot Post Office’s mail sorting room is being transformed into a new boarding concourse to aid in the reduction of congestion and to modernize Penn Station into a 21st-century train station. With a stunning 92-foot high skylight arching up from the original steel trusses, the internal courtyard will be showered with natural light.
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SOM’s design blends old and new and will create a grand civic space that celebrates the unique history of the Farley Building and evokes the vaulted concourse of the original Penn Station.