Port Authority, much like Penn Station, is universally hated, and yesterday, the P.A. chairman announced a plan to come up with a plan to maybe make the 63-year-old hub a little less terrible and depressing. The Times reports that the authority tapped megafirm Kohn Pedersen Fox and construction consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff to create a study that would detail how the terminal can become a "world-class facility." This includes looking at ways to not only enhance the terminal, but possibly even, god help us all, replace it. One priority would be building new bus staging areas and storage facilities to limit the number of idling buses on city streets.
However, there's no timeline for when the study will be complete or when renovations could start, so basically, the Port Authority just wants to give a tiny glimmer of hope to bus riders than one day the terminal won't feel like death. In the meantime, the terminal is trying to up the ante with new vendors, so now you can distract yourself from the squalor with a sugar coma from Cake Boss or drown your transportation sorrows in a venti double-whip-soy-latte-mint-frappuchino from the soon-to-open Starbucks.
· Port Authority to Consider Bus Terminal Renovation [NYT]
· Port Authority Bus Terminal [Curbed]
Photo by Jason Kuffer/Curbed Flickr pool
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