The Destruction of Penn Station Author:Eric P. Nash, Lorraine B. Diehl Opened to the public in 1910, McKim, Mead & White's Pennsylvania Station featured a dramatic vaulted glass ceiling over its expansive main concourse and was inspired in part by the Roman Baths of Caracalla, giving visitor and commuter alike an experience of grandeur in entering and leaving the city. The decision in 1962 to replace the old statio... more »n and its subsequent demolition ultimately proved to be key moments in the birth of the historical preservation movement--a movement that came too late to save Penn Station itself. But during this period one might on any given day of the week, have seen Peter Moore in the station, carefully photographing the building and the process of its destruction, even as above his head--and above the heads of the 200, 000 commuters who transversed the station each day--cranes were beginning to take down what had been one of the grandest public buildings of the 20th century. Moore visited the Station again and again between 1962 and 1966 to document its architectural form as well as the drama of its ''unbuilding.'' The resulting photographs combine compositionally elegant images of architectural form and details with haunting pictures of glass and masonry stripped away from steel girders as the building is progressively demolished. "Moore's images are permeated with a sense of time and loss. There is a rhythm and flow to them as they unfold, from the arrested, classical quality of the still-intact station to the crescendo of the Dresden-like ruins."--Eric Nash
Clothbound hardcover, 10 x 11 inches, 128 pages, 1 color and 140 duotone illustrations.« less