Biltmore Room Renovations

Although this has more to do with the LIRR, I thought I'd post this here since it's GCT (I will also post in LIRR and New York Central):

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000087 ... lenews_wsj

It's really a wonderful article.

That will change by 2019, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials say, when the newsstand will be ripped out and replaced by a pair of escalators and an elevator that will return the Kissing Room to its status as a busy meeting place for travelers arriving in New York—in this case, the 80,000 Long Island Rail Road riders who will use the new East Side Access terminal below Grand Central.

The MTA board of directors is poised to approve $15.5 million in funding Thursday to pay for the renovation of the Biltmore Room, which has required the agency's planners to delicately balance the aesthetics of their landmark terminal with the expected influx of new passengers from the new station dozens of feet below.

Some preservationists reacted warily this week to the MTA's plans, which passed a committee vote Monday without much notice. Agency officials say they are restoring an underused space in the terminal to its former importance.

Simeon Bankoff, of the Historic Districts Council, called the plan for escalators "addlepated" and said it would alter "one of the last remaining historic transit spaces."

The Biltmore was one of a group of notable hotels that were clustered around Pershing Square and adjacent to GCT. The Commodore was another. The hotel was designed by the GCT architectural team of Warren and Wetmore, Reed and Stem and was opened in 1913. Most of the Biltmore quests who traveled by rail would have used the New York Central or New Haven. The hotel became a cultural and historic landmark, but unfortunately in the early eighties the building was gutted and rebuilt as a banal office building.

The new LIRR railroad termination at Grand Central Station will be an interesting one, allowing for East Side access and transfer to Metro North trains. I don’t how much this will cost the taxpayer, but it won’t be cheap. Is there a plan to allow for Metro North trains to travel to Penn Station via the Hellgate Bridge?

http://www.mta.info/capconstr/esas/

We have a thread for Penn access for MNRR in the MNRR forum.