“Pennsylvania Station succumbed to progress this week at the age of 56, after a lingering decline. The building’s one remaining facade was shorn of eagles and ornament yesterday, preparatory to leveling the last wall. It went not with a bang, or a whimper, but to the rustle of real estate stock shares. The passing of Penn Station is more than the end of a landmark. It makes the priority of real estate values over preservation conclusively clear. ”
Photo via thenation.com
In 1963 Ada Louise Huxtable became the first architecture critic for the New York Times. She believed fervently that architecture is “the art we cannot afford to ignore" and this was never so apparent as when she wrote about the demolition of Penn Station. Read about this remarkable woman and how she championed New York's cityscape.
Read more about her here in this 2013 article from The Nation.