(The following story by Robin Pogrebin appeared on the New York Times website on March 18, 2010.)
NEW YORK — The architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has signed a contract with the Moynihan Station Development Corporation to start design work on the first phase of the new Moynihan Station, the firm announced on Thursday.
The project, which was proposed by and later named for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, calls for converting the Beaux-Arts James A. Farley Post Office — across Eighth Avenue from Pennsylvania Station — into a train station.
Skidmore has been working on the project since the 1990s, producing several versions of it. Phase 1 includes extending the west-end concourse beneath the post office to allow access to additional tracks, improving platform ventilation and signal work and upgrading the connector between the post office and Penn Station under 33rd Street.
The project will also add two entrances flanking the post office’s grand stair on the west side of Eighth Avenue, along with escalators and elevators leading to Amtrak platforms.