Martin C. Pedersen in an interview for the Common Edge:

Today the busiest train station in North America is essentially housed in a basement, atop which sits the “world’s most famous arena.” The Penn Station experience has been a dreary mess ever since—and a seemingly unfixable one. Every so often there were calls for “action” on Penn Station, but these pronouncements weren’t backed with political will or money. In the past year, however, the rhetoric has ratcheted up, with competing plans floated by the MTA, private developers, and community groups. Justin Davidson, the architecture critic for New York magazine and a longtime New Yorker, has been doing some excellent reporting on these recent efforts. We talked last week, and he helped me sort out exactly where, in this tangled and still unsettled tale, things now stand.

My favorite proposa is by the Regional Plan Association and Vishaan Charkabarti:

Something needs to be done with Penn Station. It is such a depressing place.