New zoning rules should trigger real transportation
links to public space. One way is to
harness the untapped potential of Grand Central's edges, focusing efforts along
42nd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue. New
setbacks allow exterior entry to an expanded terminal city, where the main concourse
of Grand Central is supported through new outdoor rooms.
Hybridizing these spaces and adjacent buildings we
look to keep relevance with a growing influence of technology on urban space by
open framing for a new event space:
- Viaduct – Reworking the existing one lane car traffic to a two way
street to the west of Grand Central.
This allows for a pedestrian walkway along the east branch of the
viaduct with a bicycle path, planting zone, and glass paving.
- Subterranean network – With a building setback along 42nd street and
pedestrian priorities on Vanderbilt Avenue, creating gracious new entrances
which link to the multiple subway and train lines below, including the new East
Side Access / LIRR lines.
- MetLife base - New escalator experience to a cleared podium level park,
including an active façade and sky lobby above.
The plan for Midtown's near future needs to make
the Grand Central neighborhood a place people enjoy being in not just running
through. By reconnecting Park Avenue,
opening Vanderbilt Avenue to the layers below, and creating a place underneath
the MetLife building, Grand Central will have the framework to thrive for the next
100 years.
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