When it was completed in 1910, New York’s Pennsylvania Station was one of the city’s most celebrated buildings; demolished and rebuilt underground in the 1960s, it’s now a labyrinthine mess–dark, confusing, and dirty. Yale architecture historian Vincent Scully famously quipped: “One entered the city like a god; one scuttles in now like a rat.”
Help is on the way. In 2020, an airy new train hall is scheduled to open, but before that happens the station is taking steps to improve commuters’ experiences, starting with better circulation and wayfinding. The West Concourse, the renovation’s first phase, just opened, and it features supergraphics designed by Pentagram partner Michael Gericke and his team.
Over 650,000 people travel through Penn Station every day and the routes to get to a specific exit or transfer aren’t direct. Commuters typically have to look for signs at intermittent distances. If they miss one at a key juncture, they could head the wrong way.
“People have been trained to follow a sign to a sign to a sign,” associate designer Don Bilodeau says. “We thought, you can make one wall a sign instead of making five signs. It engages the users and makes the space friendlier and not as dark and dank and miserable.”
This new wayfinding is only in a small portion of the station, so commuters who don’t have to walk through the West Concourse still have to slog through the same old busy signage. Graphics alone won’t solve the problem. Corridors throughout need to be bigger; circulation everywhere–not just in the new building–needs to be more direct. However, the symbolism of Pentagram’s supergraphics embodies the forthcoming renovation’s aspirations: a return to the days when passing through the building was something you looked forward to.