Moynihan Train Hall
Walking Tour
April 14th, 2022
About the Event
When it opened in 1914, this grand landmark, designed by McKim, Mead & White, was NYC’s primary USPS facility. Its conversion to the Moynihan Train Hall, a generation in the making, is an instant new landmark. This major transportation hub, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill with lighting designers Domingo Gonzalez Associates, is the embodiment of what can be achieved when the public and private sectors work together in a partnership.
From darkness into light: this former postal facility, shrouded since WWII, beckons travelers into spacious daylit volumes and where, at night, color comes out to play. The hall’s massive trusses, preserved from the original design, contained skylights covered over during World War II. For the conversion, the roof was removed and replaced with a spectacular vaulted skylight consisting of 3,160 panels spanning over more than an acre and flooding the hall with natural light. During the day the station’s airy elegance is evident; at night the lighting artistry reveals itself celebrating and highlighting the historic trusses and is employed to enliven important events and holidays: art and function in perfect balance.
Linear lighting frames the skylights and continuously adapts to the intensity and color temperature of natural light. Subtle as daylight fades, bold colors celebrate the trusses and purlins. At night, the lighting strategy retains the sense of transparency created by the skylight. Lighting the facades that bound the skylight was a critical element in reinforcing that transparency.
Join us for a walking tour with a description of the design process and strategies led by the lighting design team at Domingo Gonzalez Associates. After the tour, we’ll cap the spectacular evening at Tir Na Nog Irish Bar with small bites and drinks.
Walking tour 5:30 – 6:30pm (31st Street and 8th Avenue entrance)
Cocktails and lite bites 6:30-8:00pm (Tir Na Nog Irish Bar and Grill, 254 West 31st Street)
