First, I would like to respond to that which has been posted already and say that I think that Mark's suggestion makes sense in that he is attempting to envision something that HE feels makes sense. That in and of itself adds value to any project. And Josh, while urban planners may have thought through this project already and ruled out designs that are "inefficient" these same "highly educated and well compensated" planners have let us down before and I am afraid that by the looks of the current plans they may be failing us once again.

To move on though, I would like to throw my own crazy notion into the ring and ask if it would be possible to create a Moynihan Station that is all housed under one roof in the Post Office and Annex buildings? In a discussion yesterday at MAS the idea was floated and the technical issue of a narrow track width under the annex was raised. From a layman's perspective this seems as though it would require adjustments, but that it could be adjusted. If anyone could comment on this I would greatly appreciate the insight on the issue.

From my own perspective it seems that overcoming this challenge would be well worth the effort. I believe that it was Senator Moynihan's original intention in conceiving of a new Penn Station that it be a great public space that would not only serve the need of commuters, but also to inspire and serve as a grand civic space. In reviewing the current plans with Madison Square Garden placed in the Annex I can't help, but be overwhelmed by the irony of the situation, but I am also concerned that such a juxtaposition will take away from the intended effect of creating a place that we can be proud of as a society.

Unfortunately, there are only a few of these truly grand architectural gems in our city that remain to serve the public good including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 42nd Street Library, Grand Central Station, Museum of Natural History, and the US Custom House. Can anyone even imagine what the effect would be of saying let's take the west side of the 42nd street library and convert it into a Verizon Office/Store so that we could free up the property on the other side of 6th Avenue? It would destroy the appearance of the building and it would take away from the grand public purpose that the Library serves.

I hope this gets some ideas rolling on the issue and I look forward to hearing back from the experts on the possibilities of keeping Moynihan Station under one roof to best serve the public good. Thanks.