SHAMEFUL ACTS OF VANDALISM PAST. A Letter from Gotham post inspired by the reading of The Destruction of Penn Station and The Late Great Pennsylvania Station prompts UK Transport to recall the demolition of Euston Station in London. To be sure, there is something to be said for creative destruction, but the new Euston Station, like the redeveloped concourse building at Chicago Union Station, is an obstacle course for commuters, with little space to wait near the gates.

This is what we lost at Penn Station.

In a previous post I recommended adapting the concourse building to the new subway and Tube station to be build at the World Trade Center site. It's fitting. Letter from Gotham correctly compared Penn Station ("The only thing I can compare it to is the interior of the Hagia Sophia or the Blue Mosque in Instanbul. But neither really compared. Penn Station was incomparable.") to sacred spaces. The concourse building drew on the Basilica of Constantine. The booking hall was based on the Baths of Caracalla.

What was downstairs was even better. But I commend Destruction of Penn Station. It's an art book, and it's the most effective railway-themed book I've ever seen that didn't have any trains in it.