In 2023 the real estate developer Vornado, against vehement objections by community groups, preservation organizations, architects, preservationsits and local politicians-but with the tacit approval of the New Yorks Landmarks Preservation Commission-demolished the McKim Mead and White designed Hotel Pennsylvania. The hotel was opened 1919 as the largest hotel in the world. It was an integral part of the urban ensemble that included Pennsylvania Station and the US Post Office building (today also Moynihan Station).

In 2014 RWC Atelier & Co was invited by Vornado to redesign the hotel as a series of boutique hotel properties linked by a new lobby inspired by the arcades of Paris and London. Those drawings for Vornado are presented here on our website. Since the hotel’s demolition, an act of architectural vandalism second only to the demolition of Penn Station itself, RWC Atelier & Co has incorporated rebuilding the Hotel Pennsylvania into its proposals for the new Penn Station-Madison Square Garden neighborhood. Drawings depicting the rebuilding are forthcoming and will be presented here and on social media.

 

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'EIRENE' (Peace) Capriccio after Bernini's sketch for the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Peter's and a cupola from Madison Square Garden by Stanford White. RWC Atelier 2023 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called childre
Sometimes sketching random things-imaginary designs, buildings in Rome from Cipriani's illustrated et al keeps my hand in practice and the miles going g by on the train and after leads to design ideas for real projects-really doodling with a purpose.
One of the lesser known courtyards of Rome just down the street from the Trevi Fountain-the side loggia of the home of the Accademia di S. Luca in Rome. Imagine entering this every day with Borromini as your professor...
The Villa Medici in Rome, home to the French Academy since 1803. All the great Rome prize winners worked in this building sending their rigorous and painterly surveys of the Roman and Greek monuments back to Paris (see previous post). I remember seei
Santi Luca e Martina in Rome. Cortona's great church in the Roman Forum next to the arch of Septimus Severus and church of the Academia di S. Luca, the world's first academy of fine art. It has been a focus of study for many years since it was first
The sublime student work(!) Of Emmanuel Brune, 1er Grand Prix 1863 at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The first image sits beside my drawing table to remind me of the standard to aim for in design and delineation...