Creating a new Penn Station has been a dream of transit advocates since our current dreary monstrosity became reality (or since when the Knicks were winning championships in a recently-built MSG, which might as well be millenia ago). And with a new 15-year lease on Madison Square Garden (with a MASSIVE loophole that might let it stay there forever), architects have begun to dream about what a new, MSG-less Penn Station would look like.

The Municipal Art Society asked four architecture firms—Diller Scofidio + Renfro, H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, SHoP Architects and SOM—to reconceive Penn Station and Madison Square Garden. The designs for the new Penn Station are contingent on the theory that MSG won't be able to make minor changes allowing for more rail use, that would then extend their lease, possibly in perpetuity.

The SHoP renderings would mimic some features of the old Penn Station, as well as feature a whole lot of light.

Another rendering, from H3, apparently has an art gallery and would feature a roof garden as well as "an eight-track high-speed rail expansion to the south."

And another design, from Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, looks like it would put Calatrava's PATH station to shame for ornate transit hubs. It would be "a city within a city, a porous and light-filled civic structure."

We'll post renderings of the new Madison Square Garden (possibly just a half-court buried deep beneath these beautiful new urban oases), later this afternoon. And below is the press release from the MAS: