PENN 2 Featured in Bloomberg

NYC’s Tired Buildings Got a Multibillion-Dollar Facelift While You Worked From Home

With buildings sitting empty, developers are making much-needed upgrades that reimagine iconic properties and transform the city’s streetscapes.

For decades, the area surrounding Penn Station has been a symbol of New York City’s lost grandeur: a gritty, congested crossroads that never quite recovered from the demolition of the original, majestic Pennsylvania Station in the 1960s.

While plans for a sweeping redevelopment of the transit hub have repeatedly stalled, a $3 billion investment from Vornado Realty Trust has been reshaping its office district, with 2 Pennsylvania Plaza — the site of the original station entrance — as its cornerstone. PENN 2, as it’s now known, has shed its outdated concrete façade and narrow windows for a sleek glass curtain wall. A new, two-block-long raised glass podium juts out of the building, and a car-choked city block below has become a tree-lined pedestrian plaza with trendy eateries. Vast terraces, rooftops, gyms and work lounges serve both PENN 2 and its neighbor PENN 1, which was also overhauled.

In all, landlords have sought permits for more than 500 office building renovations that involve exterior revamps since 2020, according to city data. While the timelines of some were driven by the pandemic, strict new energy efficiency regulations that took effect in New York City in 2019 were another incentive, said Dan Shannon, Managing Partner at MdeAS Architects, which redeveloped PENN 2.

Read the full article in Bloomberg.