Exclusive renderings of Penn Station overhaul show Trump's name with presidential seal

The winning plan to rebuild Penn Station features renderings of a new train hall with American flags at the entrance, gold-accented railings, columns and escalators — and a presidential seal featuring President Donald Trump’s name, according to internal materials obtained by Gothamist.

The new plan for Penn features raised ceilings, adding as much as 50 feet of overhead space to parts of the cramped station, according to documents that include architectural renderings, schematics and engineering notes. The plan also includes two brand new entrances: one on Eighth Avenue where the Theater at Madison Square Garden currently sits, and another along 31st Street. Windows would be installed at the taxiway that sits between the Garden and a neighboring skyscraper that shares the block.

Last week, Amtrak and the U.S. Department of Transportation announced they’d picked Penn Transformation Partners as the “master developer” for Penn Station. The group includes architects, engineering firms, real estate developers and other private companies. Members of the group released some designs for a plan in 2023 to renovate the station, but the new renderings reveal how the plan was revised to fulfill Amtrak’s request for a “classical look.”

The federal government took control of the rebuild from the MTA last year, with Amtrak overseeing the project. Trump has ordered work at the country’s busiest train station to start by the end of 2027. New York elected officials criticized the bidding process for a lack of transparency. The details of Amtrak’s request for proposals, as well as the three final bidders’ plans for Penn, were kept under wraps.

The plans exclusively obtained by Gothamist reflect what Penn Transformation Partners submitted to the Trump administration and Amtrak for review.

Penn Transformation Partners did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Amtrak said it’s now turning to securing permits, finalizing contracts and other permits ahead of putting shovels in the ground.

"We are not going to comment on leaked drafts and speculation. What your blog readers would be more interested in knowing is that USDOT, AMTRAK, and Penn Transformation Partners look forward to releasing final renderings on a once-in-a-generation project coming to New York very soon," federal Department of Transportation spokesperson Nate Sizemore said.

The renderings depict a dramatic transformation of the notoriously dark and dingy station, which dates back to the 1960s when the original Penn Station was buried beneath Madison Square Garden. They show rows of long wooden benches, a nod to the original station’s seating and a departure from the lack of seating at the Moynihan Train Hall and Grand Central Madison, the city’s two newest railroad stations.

The winning design centers on a new glass entrance on Eighth Avenue that would let natural light into the train hall. The records show Amtrak and the federal government would have to demolish the Theater at MSG as well as part of the Garden’s facade to build the new entrance.

Penn Transformation Partners estimates in the documents that only 3,400 square feet of the current Penn Station receives natural light. The group wrote the new design would allow for more than 55,000 square feet of naturally lit space, with more than half of it at the currently windowless concourse level.

The plan also calls for creating a 300-foot-long passenger pick-up and drop-off zone for cars and taxis at the new entrance, which is on the station’s west side.

Renderings of the southwest corner of the new Eighth Avenue entrance show a large plaque with “President Donald J. Trump” etched into marble next to a presidential seal.

White House officials earlier this year pitched renaming the train hub “Trump Station,” but the renderings show it would retain the name it's had since it opened in 1910, when the Pennsylvania Railroad first started running trains into Manhattan. Trump himself has said he did not suggest renaming it. Gov. Kathy Hochul has said it would never happen.

Still, the design has motifs found in other Trump projects, like the golden accents in the Oval Office and the classical architecture planned for the new White House ballroom. A 2023 rendering of the proposed Eighth Avenue entrance for Penn Station has been updated with gold-colored columns, brass handrails, and a gold clock hanging from the center of the ceiling.

The documents show the winning plan requires buying property from MSG and CEO James Dolan, including the Theater at MSG, signage outside the Garden’s facade, the sidewalks on 31st and 33rd streets, and the Eighth Avenue plaza loading zone where trucks typically drop off cargo for the theater.

A spokesperson for MSG did not respond to a request for comment.

Penn Transformation Partners includes Vornado, an influential Midtown realty group run by longtime Trump ally Steve Roth. The group is led by the construction firms Halmar and Skanska. Halmar’s Executive Vice President of Corporate Development Peter Cipriano was an adviser at the U.S. Department of Transportation in Trump’s first term.

The exterior of the new Eighth Avenue entrance was designed to mirror the original Beaux Arts Penn Station in size and scale, the records show. A square structure featuring large columns inspired by the original station would be built around the Garden. The design evokes the classical architecture preferred by the Trump administration.

The proposal also includes renovations to improve access to Penn’s tracks ahead of 2035, when the Gateway tunnels beneath the Hudson River are expected to open, expanding train capacity at the station.

Last week, Amtrak said the winning plan would rebuild the station to enable limited “through-running,” in which NJ Transit and LIRR trains travel through Penn Station instead of having to terminate there and turn around.

Critics of through-running have said the station’s platforms are too narrow for passengers to board and deboard trains at the station at the same time. Columns that support Madison Square Garden take up space on Penn Station’s platforms. But the plans obtained by Gothamist show the feds aim to address the problem on at least one platform by removing some columns and adding new access points to reduce crowding.

Gothamist also obtained a slide deck detailing plans to raise the ceilings in most sections of Penn Station. Ceilings in the cramped 32nd Street corridor would be raised 20 feet, while ceilings at the new Eighth Avenue entrance would be 50 feet higher than the current ceilings, according to the plan.

Other technical details included in the plan show the developer aims to fully move the station’s mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems onto the roof of the new square structure built around the Garden. That would free up space inside Penn Station to allow for the reconstruction, according to the plan.

When the MTA pitched its own plan to rebuild Penn Station in 2022, it also called for a new entrance on Eighth Avenue — as well as the construction of a new glass entrance beneath the mid-block taxiway. The winning bidder selected by Amtrak criticized that plan in the presentation, saying it would be too costly, and proposed a smaller promenade that still adds natural light to the station.

The plan also leaves out areas of Penn Station the MTA rebuilt over the last decade. The New York transit agency, which owns the Long Island Rail Road, is the station’s largest tenant. Over the last decade, MTA Chair Janno Lieber spent more than $500 million adding a new entrance to the station at Seventh Avenue, and building higher ceilings to the station’s corridor beneath 33rd Street.

MTA officials have declined to sign onto an agreement to collaborate on the station’s rebuild, but have said they plan to use “our leasehold rights to ensure any plan meets the needs of MTA customers.”