{"id":237,"date":"2012-12-22T11:05:34","date_gmt":"2012-12-22T16:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/?p=237"},"modified":"2018-08-12T12:42:49","modified_gmt":"2018-08-12T16:42:49","slug":"grand-central-terminal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/2012\/12\/22\/grand-central-terminal\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand Central Terminal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GrandCentralTerminal_1020037_NYC\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Main Concourse…\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Grand Central Terminal<\/b>\u00a0(GCT<\/b>)\u2014colloquially called\u00a0Grand Central Station<\/b>, or shortened to simply\u00a0Grand Central<\/b>\u2014is a\u00a0commuter<\/a>\u00a0rail\u00a0terminal station<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a042nd Street<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Park Avenue<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Midtown Manhattan<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0New York City<\/a>,\u00a0United States<\/a>. Built by and named for the\u00a0New York Central Railroad<\/a>\u00a0in the heyday of American long-distance passenger rail travel, it is the largest train station in the world by the number of\u00a0platforms<\/a>:\u00a044, with 67\u00a0tracks along them. They are on two levels, both below ground, with 41\u00a0tracks on the upper level and 26 on the lower, though the total number of tracks along platforms and in\u00a0rail yards<\/a>\u00a0exceeds 100. The terminal covers an area of 48 acres (19\u00a0ha).<\/p>\n

The terminal serves commuters traveling on the\u00a0Metro-North Railroad<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Westchester<\/a>,\u00a0Putnam<\/a>, and\u00a0Dutchess<\/a>\u00a0counties in\u00a0New York State<\/a>, and\u00a0Fairfield<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0New Haven<\/a>\u00a0counties in\u00a0Connecticut<\/a>. Until 1991 the terminal served\u00a0Amtrak<\/a>, which moved to nearby\u00a0Pennsylvania Station<\/a>\u00a0upon completion of the\u00a0Empire Connection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although the terminal has been properly called \u201cGrand Central Terminal\u201d since 1913, many people continue to refer to it as \u201cGrand Central Station\u201d, the name of the previous rail station on the same site, and of the\u00a0U.S. Post Office<\/a>\u00a0station next door, which is not part of the terminal. It is also sometimes used to refer to the\u00a0Grand Central \u2013 42nd Street subway station<\/a>, which serves the terminal.<\/p>\n

According to the travel magazine\u00a0Travel + Leisure<\/a><\/i>\u00a0in its October 2011 survey, Grand Central Terminal is “the world’s number six most visited tourist attraction”, bringing in approximately 21,600,000 visitors annually.
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\"IMG_0561a\"<\/a>\u00a0\"IMG_0559-detail\"<\/a><\/p>\n

South Facade…<\/em><\/p>\n

Between 1903 and 1913, the entire building was torn down in phases and replaced by the current\u00a0Grand Central Terminal<\/b>, which was designed by the architectural firms of\u00a0Reed and Stem<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Warren and Wetmore<\/a>, who entered an agreement to act as the associated architects of Grand Central Terminal in February 1904. Reed & Stem were responsible for the overall design of the station, Warren and Wetmore added architectural details and the\u00a0Beaux-Arts style<\/a>. Charles Reed was appointed the chief executive for the collaboration between the two firms and promptly appointed\u00a0Alfred T. Fellheimer<\/a>\u00a0as head of the combined design team. This work was accompanied by the\u00a0electrification<\/i>\u00a0of the three railroads using the station and the burial of the approach in the\u00a0Park Avenue tunnel<\/a>. The result of this was the creation of several blocks worth of prime real estate in Manhattan, which were then sold for a large sum of money. The new terminal opened on February 2, 1913.
\n<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

French sculptor Jules-Alexis Coutan created what was, at the time of its unveiling in 1914, considered the largest sculptural group in the world. It is 48 feet (15\u00a0m) high, the clock in the center having a circumference of 13 feet (4.0\u00a0m). It depicts\u00a0Mercury<\/a>\u00a0flanked by\u00a0Hercules<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Minerva<\/a>\u00a0and was carved by the John Donnelly Company.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0296\"<\/a>\u00a0\"IMG_0303\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ticket Booths and Ceiling Detail…\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The Main\u00a0Concourse<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is the center of Grand Central. The space is cavernous \u2013 275\u00a0ft (84\u00a0m) long, 120\u00a0ft (37\u00a0m) wide and 125\u00a0ft (38\u00a0m) high\u00a0\u2013 and usually filled with bustling crowds. The ticket booths are located in the Concourse, although many now stand unused or repurposed since the introduction of ticket vending machines. The large\u00a0American flag<\/a>\u00a0was hung in Grand Central Terminal a few days after the\u00a0September 11 attacks<\/a>\u00a0on the\u00a0World Trade Center<\/a>. The main information booth is in the center of the concourse. This is a perennial meeting place, and the four-faced clock on top of the information booth is perhaps the most recognizable icon of Grand Central. Each of the four clock faces is made from\u00a0opal<\/a>, and both\u00a0Sotheby’s<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Christie’s<\/a>\u00a0have estimated the value to be between\u00a0$<\/a>10 million and\u00a0$<\/a>20 million. Within the marble and brass pagoda lies a “secret” door that conceals a spiral staircase leading to the lower level information booth.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0300\"<\/a>\u00a0\"IMG_0301\"<\/a><\/div>\n
Ramp from the Lower Concourse and Lighting Detail…<\/em><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Restorations<\/strong><\/div>\n
\n

In 1994, the MTA signed a long-term lease on the building and began massive renovations. All the billboards were removed. These renovations were mostly finished in 1998, though some of the minor refits (such as replacement of electromechanical train information displays with electronic displays at track entries) were not completed until 2000. The most striking effect was the restoration of the Main Concourse ceiling, revealing the\u00a0painted skyscape<\/a>\u00a0and constellations. The original baggage room, later converted into retail space and occupied for many years by Chemical Bank, was removed, and replaced with a mirror image of the West Stairs. Although the baggage room had been designed by the original architects, the restoration architects found evidence that a set of stairs mirroring those to the West was originally intended for that space. Other modifications included a complete overhaul of the Terminal’s superstructure and the replacement of the electromechanical Omega Board train arrival\/departure display with a purely electronic display that was designed to fit into the architecture of the Terminal aesthetically.<\/p>\n

The original quarry in Tennessee was located and reopened specifically to provide matching stone to replace damaged stone and for the new East Staircase. Each piece of new stone is labeled with its installation date and the fact that it was not a part of the original Terminal building.<\/p>\n

Ending in 2007, the exterior was again cleaned and restored, starting with the west facade on Vanderbilt Avenue and gradually working counterclockwise. The project involved cleaning the facade, rooftop light courts, and statues; filling in cracks,\u00a0repointing<\/a>\u00a0stones on the facade, restoring the copper roof and the building’s cornice, repairing the large windows of the Main Concourse, and removing the remaining\u00a0blackout<\/a>\u00a0paint applied to the windows during\u00a0World War II<\/a>. The result is a cleaner, more attractive, and structurally sound exterior and the windows allow much more light into the Main Concourse.<\/p>\n

(description: excerpts from Wikipedia)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"GCT-DormersAndLights\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"GCT-InfoBoothClock\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"GCT-100\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"GCTramp_115241_B&W\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"GrandCentralMarket_1000386_NYC\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"TheRamp_P1000392_GCT\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"OysterBar_P1000396_GCT\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"GCT_0546_VanderbiltHall\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Main Concourse…\u00a0 Grand Central Terminal\u00a0(GCT)\u2014colloquially called\u00a0Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply\u00a0Grand Central\u2014is a\u00a0commuter\u00a0rail\u00a0terminal station\u00a0at\u00a042nd Street\u00a0and\u00a0Park Avenue\u00a0in\u00a0Midtown Manhattan\u00a0in\u00a0New York City,\u00a0United States. Built by and named for the\u00a0New York Central Railroad\u00a0in the heyday of American long-distance passenger rail travel, it is the largest train station in the world by the number of\u00a0platforms:\u00a044, with 67\u00a0tracks along … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,78],"tags":[95,71,110,120,106,108,93,92,102,109,104,105,107,94,101,97,103,98,32,9,10,56,113,99,112,111,96,100],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1096,"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions\/1096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}