Madison Square Garden

August 29, 2023

NYC Council approves five-year permit for Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden will remain above Penn Station, but for not as long as its owners want. Two New York City Council committees on Monday voted to renew the arena's special permit for five years, which would be the shortest operating permit given to the Garden if approved by the full Council next month. MSG owner James Dolan had hoped to secure a permanent extension of the operating permit which expired earlier this year.
details here

Private firm unveils Penn Station redesign plan, claims it’s $1B cheaper than MTA’s

Renderings courtesy of ASTM, PAU, and HOK

June 29, 2023

Private firm unveils Penn Station redesign plan, claims it’s $1B cheaper than MTA’s

By Aaron Ginsburg

A private development firm unveiled a proposal for rebuilding Penn Station that is $1 billion cheaper than what is proposed by the MTA. ASTM North America on Wednesday revealed details of their $6 billion renovation of the transit station, which involves keeping Madison Square Garden in its current location, wrapping it in a massive stone facade, and creating a more unified train hall. The firm's unveiling of the comprehensive plan comes days after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that Penn Station's renovation will move forward with the preliminary design process without the development of several office towers.
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MSG should stay above Penn Station, says Manhattan borough president

Rendering: ASTM North America

May 22, 2023

MSG should stay above Penn Station, says Manhattan borough president

By Aaron Ginsburg

Madison Square Garden should be granted a new operating permit and be allowed to stay put, as long as it gives up some of its space for the expansion of Penn Station, Manhattan Borough Mark Levine said on Monday. As first reported by Crain's New York, Levine's recommendation includes demolishing MSG's theater and replacing it with a new grand entrance facing Eighth Avenue, a new mid-block entrance, and a double-height concourse. To do this, Levine advises giving MSG a new five-year special permit, if the Garden works with the city, state, and railroads to redevelop Penn Station and the surrounding area.
Details here

Giant ‘No Quit in New York’ letters pop up across NYC to show support for Rangers playoff run

All photos courtesy of MSG Sports

May 24, 2022

Giant ‘No Quit in New York’ letters pop up across NYC to show support for Rangers playoff run

By Devin Gannon

The New York Rangers are on the hunt for the team's fifth Stanley Cup, facing off this week against the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round. To keep fans excited about the playoff run, the hockey team is painting New York City blue with viewing parties, prizes, giveaways, appearances by alumni, and photo experiences. Giant letters spelling the Rangers' appropriate motto for the season, "No Quit in New York," have popped up across Manhattan, perfect for a pre-game photo op.
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Foo Fighters, Springsteen return to NYC this month for first full-capacity shows in over a year

Photo by Ralph_PH on Flickr

June 8, 2021

Foo Fighters, Springsteen return to NYC this month for first full-capacity shows in over a year

By Devin Gannon

June is turning out to be a good month in New York City for rock 'n' roll. In the coming days, Bruce Springsteen will return to Broadway, the Foo Fighters will perform at Madison Square Garden, and The Strokes are taking on Irving Plaza. All performances will be at 100 percent capacity and for fully vaccinated fans only.
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Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center to serve as polling sites for 2020 election

Photo by ajay_suresh on Flickr

September 1, 2020

Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center to serve as polling sites for 2020 election

By Devin Gannon

Two major sports arenas in New York City will serve as polling sites for the general election in November, providing a socially distanced way for residents to vote in person. The city's Board of Elections announced that Madison Square Garden and the Barclays Center will both be Early Voting and Election Day poll sites, the result of a deal made between players of the National Basketball Association and the league to resume playoffs after teams refused to play following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The agreement involved several social justice initiatives, including the use of NBA arenas across the country as voting locations for the upcoming election.
Details this way

See NYC landmarks turn blue in honor of essential workers

Photo by Jörg Angeli on Unsplash

April 10, 2020

See NYC landmarks turn blue in honor of essential workers

By Devin Gannon

To show support for New York City's essential workers on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic, a number of buildings turned blue Thursday night. Madison Square Garden, One World Trade Center's spire, Beacon Theatre, Pier 17, Hudson Yards' Vessel, and more join more than 100 landmarks across the country as part of the #LightItBlue campaign. The nationwide lighting will occur weekly every Thursday.
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City Living

Cuomo revives plan to overhaul Penn Station and create new Empire Station Complex

Rendering of new entrance on 8th Avenue to Penn Station via Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office

January 6, 2020

Cuomo revives plan to overhaul Penn Station and create new Empire Station Complex

By Devin Gannon

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is returning to one of his favorite infrastructure proposals: the overhaul of Penn Station. During an event on Monday hosted by the Association for a Better New York, the governor announced plans to build the Empire Station Complex, a station that would link a modernized Penn Station, the soon-to-be-open Moynihan Train Hall, and a new terminal one block south of the existing site. The plan, first introduced by the governor in 2016, would add eight new tracks and increase train capacity by 40 percent at the station, which currently serves more than 650,000 passengers each day.
See the updated plan

Penn Station and MSG get reimagined as a landscaped cemetery

MSG reimagined as a cemetery (L); Memorial walls in the subway stations (R). Via DeathLab

November 8, 2017

Penn Station and MSG get reimagined as a landscaped cemetery

By Dana Schulz

The rant that traveling via Penn Station is enough to kill you just took on a whole new meaning. Untapped Cities shared this vision from Columbia University's DeathLab (yes, this is a group dedicated to dealing with death in the city) that reimagines Penn Station and Madison Square Garden as a giant cemetery and public space. The general idea is to be more eco-friendly and accessible. Not only will the human remains be used to fertilize the gardens, but family members and the general public will be able to record digital memories to be stored on a central server.
Learn more about this proposal

October 5, 2016

POLL: Which Penn Station scheme do you prefer, Governor Cuomo’s or Vishaan Chakrabarti’s?

By Dana Schulz

When Governor Cuomo revealed his plans for a new Penn Station-Moynihan Train Hall complex early last week, things seemed to be moving full steam towards a 2020 completion date thanks to flashy renderings and the selection of a high-profile developer-builder team. But architect Vishaan Chakrabarti was not convinced, and he and his firm the Practice for Architecture and Urbanism decided to create their own vision, one that repurposes Madison Square Garden, a facet of the plan he feels Cuomo failed to address.
Tell us which scheme you prefer

Vishaan Chakrabarti reveals idea to repurpose Madison Square Garden as part of the Penn Station overhaul

By Dana Schulz

Earlier this week, Governor Cuomo revealed plans to transform a revamped Penn Station-Moynihan Train Hall complex into a "world-class 21st century transportation hub." Despite the flashy new renderings and promise of a 2020 completion date, not everyone is sold on the plan, including Vishaan Chakrabarti, former principal of SHoP Architects and founder of the Practice for Architecture and Urbanism. As outlined in the Times, he feels that Cuomo's scheme has one glaring omission--Madison Square Garden. Instead of demolishing the arena, as earlier plans had called for, Chakrabarti proposes repurposing it and "using its stripped skeleton to make a glass pavilion, which becomes a neighborhood gathering spot, not just a station." The venue would then move to the west end of the Farley Building.
Lots more details and renderings ahead

July 20, 2016

45 Years Ago, Evel Knievel Jumped Across 10 Cars in Madison Square Garden

By Dana Schulz

A 1971 issue of the New Yorker described Evel Knievel as "a thirty-two-year-old native of Butte, Montana, who makes his living by riding a motorcycle at high speed up a wood-and-steel ramp, off the top, and into the air, with the intention of landing it on another ramp some distance away." Today, we're all familiar with the images of videos of the famed daredevil jumping over things on his Harley, but 45 years ago, Knievel was making his first trip to NYC. Madison Square Garden was hosting an event called the Auto Thrill Show, and as part of it, Knievel jumped over 10 vehicles, nine cars and one van--the max that could fit in the space--to a crowd "worked up to a point of high tension, apprehension, and excitement." These feelings weren't based on the length of the jump (he had set a world record earlier that year when he made it over 19 cars in Ontario, California), but rather the mere 75 feet of concrete between the end of the takeoff ramp and the beginning of the landing.
So what happened?

History

‘Muhammad Ali Way’ Street Sign Appears Outside Madison Square Garden

Via DOT

June 8, 2016

‘Muhammad Ali Way’ Street Sign Appears Outside Madison Square Garden

By Dana Schulz

If you walk by Madison Square Garden today, you'll likely notice a group of people snapping photos of the street sign at the southwest corner of 33rd Street and 7th Avenue. That's because yesterday a temporary honorary street name was added in memoriam of Muhammad Ali (h/t Untapped). The sign that reads "Muhammad Ali Way" is positioned in front of a digital billboard that features another tribute.
See more photos here

Celebrities

Transit Think Tank Says MSG Move Could Be a $5B Example of ‘Architects Run Wild’

Rendering for a proposed new MSG by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

April 27, 2016

Transit Think Tank Says MSG Move Could Be a $5B Example of ‘Architects Run Wild’

By Michelle Cohen

Moving MSG to make room for a bigger, better Penn Station train hub would be really expensive and probably not a good idea, according to a new report by transit think tank Rudin Center for Transportation Policy. Commercial Observer reports that the just-released study outlines the concern that moving the arena would come with a price tag of over $5 billion, take, like, forever, and would generally "become an urban planner’s worst nightmare." The study refers to the proposed overhaul of Pennsylvania Station and the idea of extending it to the post office off Eighth Avenue as well as suggestions by urban planners for relocating MSG.
So what's going to cost so much?

October 25, 2014

Weekly Highlights: Top Picks from the 6sqft Staff

By Dana Schulz

If we’re ever going to get a new Penn Station Madison Square Garden will have to move, so a group of urban planners has proposed relocating the arena to a nearby post office. Ghislaine Viñas’ colorful and eclectic loft design seamlessly blends together in Tribeca. Ever wonder about those strange faces on the Woolworth Building? We’ve […]

Uncategorized

October 23, 2014

Urban Planners Propose Moving Madison Square Garden to Nearby Post Office

By Dana Schulz

If there's one thing that all New Yorkers can agree on it's that Penn Station is pretty awful. And if we're ever going to get a new home for NJ Transit, Amtrak, and the LIRR, Madison Square Garden will have to move (just don't tell any die-hard Rangers fans that). The Alliance for a New Penn Station, a coalition of the Municipal Art Society and the Regional Plan Association, is proposing in a new report (revealed at this morning's MAS Summit) that the world-famous venue take up residency in the Morgan Post Office and Annex, occupying the block bound by 9th and 10th avenues and 28th and 30th streets. The mail sorting facility site is large enough to accommodate a new state-of-the-art arena and is just a quick walk to Penn Station. The coalition told Capital New York: “Relocating the Garden to this site will provide the city with a new arena and allow for the reconstruction and expansion of Penn Station, each of which can be designed to vastly improve the conditions of the district.”
More on the proposal and renderings of what the new site could look like

Architecture And Design

Madison Square Garden

NYC Council approves five-year permit for Madison Square Garden

Private firm unveils Penn Station redesign plan, claims it’s $1B cheaper than MTA’s

MSG should stay above Penn Station, says Manhattan borough president

Giant ‘No Quit in New York’ letters pop up across NYC to show support for Rangers playoff run

Foo Fighters, Springsteen return to NYC this month for first full-capacity shows in over a year

Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center to serve as polling sites for 2020 election

See NYC landmarks turn blue in honor of essential workers

Cuomo revives plan to overhaul Penn Station and create new Empire Station Complex

Penn Station and MSG get reimagined as a landscaped cemetery

POLL: Which Penn Station scheme do you prefer, Governor Cuomo’s or Vishaan Chakrabarti’s?

Vishaan Chakrabarti reveals idea to repurpose Madison Square Garden as part of the Penn Station overhaul

45 Years Ago, Evel Knievel Jumped Across 10 Cars in Madison Square Garden

‘Muhammad Ali Way’ Street Sign Appears Outside Madison Square Garden

Transit Think Tank Says MSG Move Could Be a $5B Example of ‘Architects Run Wild’

Weekly Highlights: Top Picks from the 6sqft Staff

This $8.75M Village townhouse is a downtown dream home with an elevator, three terraces, and a rooftop office suite

Urban Planners Propose Moving Madison Square Garden to Nearby Post Office

9 DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn

Madison Square Garden

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