“An Oasis of Tranquility, in Grand Central Terminal”

July 16, 2015
Credit: Peter Aaron/OTTO

An article in The New York Times examines how Grand Central Terminal, one of America’s great civic spaces, still captures our attention. David Dunlap’s piece, accompanied by a time-lapse video shot by Damon Winter, takes a look at the iconic Oyster Bar ramp hall, which was reclaimed in a comprehensive renovation by BBB.

“An Oasis of Tranquillity, in Grand Central Terminal”

New York Times

By: David W. Dunlap of The New York Times

“Nothing has happened.

That isn’t the most compelling way to begin a news column. But it is what makes the Oyster Bar ramp hall at Grand Central Terminal among the most imposing, dignified and humanistic public spaces in New York City….

…The grandeur of the ramp hall was seemingly lost in 1927, when the concourse ticket offices were expanded into a new mezzanine that reduced the triumphal portal to a rat hole. Until the 1990s, even the main concourse was a playground for advertisers.

All that changed in the 1998 reclamation of the terminal, designed by Beyer Blinder Belle. In the ramp hall, the mezzanine was removed and the bridge — once enclosed by eight-foot walls — was given a Beaux-Arts-style balustrade that opened up the space.”

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