Officials at Madison Square Garden are really trying to prove they weren't bluffing about pulling out of the Moynihan Station/Penn Station redevelopment plan. They've released two renderings of a renovated MSG, as well as details on the specifics of the plan. Pissed politicians had hinted that MSG might have a hard time getting approval for the work, but MSG does not need City Council approval if there's no expansion, and both the arena footprint and seating capacity are staying the same. But a whole lot more will change! Slated to begin in 2009, the renovation is pretty much top-to-bottom, but not on the outside?yet. "The most urgent matter we have is to improve our customers’ experience, and the customer experience is within the interior," an MSGer told The Real Estate. "We’ll see where the exterior goes in the future."
Check out the before-and-after (or, after-and-before) pictures above to get a feel for the changes. The Seventh Avenue entrance will get a double-height makeover, complete with skylight to brighten up those depressing MSG corridors. There will be suites added closer to the arena floor, and new bar areas will have open views of the arena bowl. It's hard to imagine how all this will get done while the arena handles a full load of events, so maybe they'll cancel the next couple of Knicks seasons to clear up the schedule. We're pretty sure nobody would mind.
· As the Moynihan Turns: Dissing the Dolans Now a Sport [Curbed]
· Moynihan Station Deathblow: MSG Pulls Out of Plan? [Curbed]
Loading comments...