NEW YORK — Is the world’s most beautiful passenger station interior in New York City? UNESCO — the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — says yes, although if you want to get technical about it, the station isn’t in New York City so much as it is under it.
Grand Central Madison — the Long Island Rail Road terminal deep beneath Grand Central Terminal — was named winner of UNESCO’s 2024 Prix Versailles special prize for an interior in the passenger station category in a Monday, Dec. 2, ceremony in Paris.
“New Yorkers have known since the day it opened that Grand Central Madison is a world-class terminal – winning the Prix Versailles Interior Award is just la cerise sur le gateau – the cherry on top,” Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Janno Lieber said in a press release. “The project team seamlessly blended innovative engineering and architectural grandeur to create a worthy addition to Grand Central – New York’s temple of mass transit. Congratulations to all.”
Said LIRR President Rob Free, “With modern designs that complement the historic Grand Central Terminal right above it, Grand Central Madison has delivered the best of both worlds — a dramatic improvement and increase to service, along with an elegantly designed terminal, now officially recognized internationally.”
This the 10th edition of the Prix Versailles world architecture and design awards, which are awarded to recent projects in eight categories: passenger stations, airports, campuses, sports facilities, museums, emporiums, hotels, and restaurants. The overall Prix Versailles for a passenger station went to Schafberger station in St. Wolfgang, Austria; the award for a station exterior went to Toulouse Matabiau station in Toulouse, France. The full list of honorees is available at the Prix Versailles website.
“Each building and each space that we are memorializing today has the power to transform our society, make our lives more harmonious and connected, and inspire us to better inhabit the world,” Benjamin Millepied, chairman of the eight-member jury, said in a press release.
The Prix Versailles dates to 2015, but the passenger station awards began in 2019. Two other U.S. facilities have been honored: Salesforce Transit Center, the San Francisco structure currently serving as a bus terminal but designed to eventually also serve high speed and commuter rail, won the Prix Versailles in 2020; New York’s Moynihan Train Hall received the same honor in 2021.
Something about walking through a space that is what….over 50m underground?
Practical but claustrophobic–the judges for the prize must have been accustomed to judging airport jetways.