The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey released designs Thursday from the architecture competition for the West Side bus terminal.
The authority ran the contest over several months, inviting architecture firms to submit proposals to redevelop the aging terminal. Five proposals were submitted by architecture firms such as Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, Arcadis, AECOM, Perkins Eastman and the Archilier Architecture Consortium, Crain’s reported.
Political disagreements had stalled plans for the terminal. On Tuesday, the agency agreed to expand the planning for the terminal project to more extensively involve the public and other stakeholders.
One of the officials who protested the terminal’s planning process, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, told the website that none of the proposals will survive because the authority must restart planning the new terminal.
“We are opposed to considering these proposals,” he said. “These came out of a process where there was limited planning criteria, and that’s wrong.”
Some of the architects had complex and costly ideas like burying the terminal in its current location, moving it to the basement of the Javits Center or reclaiming private land in a vast expansion. While the agency has estimated the project will cost between $8 billion and $10 billion, the design costs ranged between $3.7 billion and $15.3 billion.
John Degnan, the New Jersey-appointed chairman of the authority, said none of the proposals will be the final design. “It was never the intent that we would come up with one concept that we would move forward with,” he said, according to Crain’s.
The agency said Thursday it will provide up to $150 million in funds for the development of Moynihan Station. [Crain’s] — Miriam Hall