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Title: The Late, Great Pennsylvania Station by Lorraine B. Diehl ISBN: 1-56858-060-6 Publisher: Four Walls Eight Windows Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.83 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent history, not overly sentimential
Comment: Too many people moan and groan over the 'loss' of Penn Station. People forget that it was a white elephant, built in the wrong place, too big, except in WWII, and far beyond the abilities of the Pennsylvania RR to support by 1960. The author does a good job laying out the story of the building of the station and its sad, slow decline. Remember, there are no villians here. The author is to be commended for not falling back on easily answers to why the station fell. First rate.
Rating: 5
Summary: Moves you to tears
Comment: ...that such a magnificent work of art was not deemed worthy of preservation in 1963. In the opinion of a number of architectural historians, Pennsylvania Station was the grandest building ever erected in the United States. The photos in this marvelous book certainly make that case very convincingly. And they give me an overwhelming sense of melancholy. I'm just a tad too young to have any recollection of the lost station, but I regularly pass through its depressing successor. One architectural critic opined that whereas the old station made you feel like royalty in entering the City of New York, the current station makes you feel like a scurrying rat. Lorraine B. Diehl is passionate about her subject. She grew up in the neighborhood, and the great station fascinated her from childhood, when it was a vast, wondrous world for her and other kids. As she matured, she came to appreciate not only the architectural details, but the station as a backdrop to American history, witnessing the comings and goings of countless people in peace and in war. In one of her favorite quotations, Thomas Wolfe (in "You Can't Go Home Again") said that the great station was "vast enough to hold the sound of time." Whether you're interested in railroads, architecture, engineering (the story of how the railroad tunnelled under the Hudson River and built the station is fascinating in itself) or history, this book is a must read. If you're ever in New York, make a point of taking one of the author's free tours of the station, 12:30 PM on the 4th Monday of each month from the information desk. She's as an engaging a guide as she is an author, and you'll see some hidden remnants of the old station that other visitors can't.
Rating: 4
Summary: Insightful book
Comment: If you've heard of Penn Station and its destruction, but don't know the history or details, this is EXACTLY the book you are looking for if you want to know about it. It includes an entertaining and informative history of the station, amazing pictures, and remarkable insight into the forces that led to the station's destruction.
It is simultaneously a fond tribute to an architectural masterpiece, and a saddening description of civic apathy.
Hopefully Ms. Diehl will put out another edition with updates and description of plans for a new Penn Station.
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Title: Pennsylvania Station by Steven Parrissien ISBN: 0714834661 Publisher: Phaidon Press Inc. Pub. Date: 10 October, 1996 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Destruction of Penn Station by Peter Moore, Barbara Moore, Lorraine B. Diehl, Eric Peter Nash ISBN: 1891024051 Publisher: Distributed Art Publishers Pub. Date: 15 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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Title: New York's Pennsylvania Stations by Hilary Ballon, Norman McGrath, Marilyn Taylor ISBN: 0393730786 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $55.00 |
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