历经世事沧桑的纽约中央车站

Grand Central

纽约中央车站

The survivor

历经世事沧桑的幸存者

As thestation celebrates its centennial, New York looks to the next 100 years.

中央车站迎来百年庆典，此时纽约仿佛看到了下一个100年

“EUROPE has its cathedralsand we have Grand Central Station,” said Philip Johnson, an architect, when healong with Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Kent Barwick, then a director of NewYork’s Municipal Art Society (MAS), fought to save the station from demolitionin the 1970s. It took a Supreme Court decision to save the magnificentBeaux-Arts building; but it survived and launched its year-long centennialcelebration on February 1st.

“欧洲有大教堂，我们有中央车站，” 建筑大师菲利普·约翰逊（Philip Johnson）与杰奎琳·肯尼迪·奥纳西斯（Jackie Kennedy Onassis）和肯特·巴维克（Kent Barwick）在一起的时候曾这样说过。在20世纪70年代，纽约市政艺术协会（MAS）的一名导演曾为中央车站免于拆迁而奋斗奔波。最高法院下令才使这座宏伟的艺术建筑免于毁坏，不管怎样它幸存了下来，并在2月1日举行了百年庆典。

The station’s architectural oddities, stilldelight. A concave ceiling in the main concourse depicting the constellationsdraws the eye upwards. The station helped create New York’s premiere businessdistrict, where 250,000 people work, and it still serves it well.

中央车站的建筑风格奇异，但又赏心悦目，中心大厅星空穹顶引得人们抬头观看。中央车站带动创造了可容纳25万人工作的纽约主商业区，并且为商业区提供良好的服务。

The station’s construction was a vast undertaking:25 miles of water and sewer lines had to be relocated, and 3m cubic yards ofdirt and rock were excavated. Trackswere lowered underground and electrified and the ground above became Park Avenue. The station,since 1991 home to acommuter line and several subway lines, was once the main gateway to the rest of thecountry. In 1913, 75,000 passed through the station per day; today that numberis 750,000, with 1m people passing though the station on busy days. Some160,000 more are expected when the commuter line to Long Island is extended toGrand Central in 2019.

建造中央车站是一项浩大的工程：必须重新安置25英里的自来水管道和污水管道，挖掘300万立方土石，铁轨降到地下，统一电气化，地面是公园大道。自1991年成为通勤站和几条地铁线的始发站以来，中央车站曾是人们出入美国其他地方的主要通道。1913年车站每天接待75000人，现在达到75万人，高峰时段会达到100万人。如果2019年中央车站开通连接长岛的交通线，届时车站每天通过人数预计会再增16万。

Michael Bloomberg, New York’s mayor, wants toensure the surrounding area, home to 14 Fortune 500 companies, remains adesirable business district. He has proposed changing the zoning laws for the78-block area around the station in East Midtown. Re-zoning would make iteasier to demolish out-of-date buildings and allow grander commercial space tobe built. He also wants to partially pedestrianise Vanderbilt Avenue, anunderused street behind the station named for a railway tycoon. The area doeshave a lot of older buildings with high vacancy rates. The average age ofoffice buildings in the area is 73, much older than similar places in globalrivals.

纽约市长迈克尔·布隆伯格（Michael Bloomberg）希望确保周围区域仍是令人满意的商业区，它也是14家财富500强公司的所在地。他提议改变东中城车站附近78个区域的分区法规。重新划区将更好地拆除过时的建筑，建造大规模的商业区。他还希望把部分范德比尔特大道设为行人专区，这条大道以一位铁路大亨命名，位于中央车站后方，当时还未投入使用。这片区域有许多老建筑，空置率很高，办公大楼的平均年龄是73岁，比全球同类地区建筑的历史久远得多。

New York has a history of bold vision. Its streetgrid was designed for 1m people at a time when the population barely topped 100, subway was built when much of New York was still farmland. Mr Bloomberg haslong looked to the future. He has re-zoned 36% of the city since 2002. Withjust one year left in his term, he is moving quickly with his plans, which concern many, like VinCipolla, the present head of the MAS, who accepts that midtown must evolve, butis worried about unprotected historic buildings. Just like Mrs Onassis.

纽约向来具备远见胆识，其街道的设计流量为100万人，而当时人口才刚刚10万人，在大部分土地仍是农田的情况下就修建地铁。布隆伯格一直放眼未来，自2002年以来曾重新划分了纽约36%的地区。在即将离任的一年里，他快速实施自己的规划，使得许多人为之担心。其中就包括MAS的现任领导文西·珀拉（Vin Cipolla），他赞同市中心一定要发展，但也担心未受到保护的历史建筑遭到破坏。他的行事风格跟奥纳西斯夫人很类似。