Design contract signed for Moynihan Station

February 14, 2001 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 in New York City, the New York Times reports. 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.