Amtrak Claytor-Scannell Control Center

 office building, production

6-story postmodern office building completed in 1992. Designed by by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, it is also known as the Penn Station Central Control Building. It handles all train traffic into and out of Penn Station. The building was jointly financed by Amtrak and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Dispatchers work at consoles in front of a 70-foot-long illuminated board that shows the position of every train.

The facade is clad in light grey-brown granite (with darker grey trim) above a ground floor of dark-grey granite. The north facade is organized into five bays by piers that begin as octagons at the ground floor (where the bays are recessed behind them). The west bay is not recessed and has no openings at any floor. The main entrance is in the next bay, with glass double-doors below a small, sloped canopy of glass and green metal. Above this, the unified 2nd-3rd floor has large window that has narrow sides angled back, and a grid of panes in green metal framing - the grid is a 3-over-3 box, with the corners further subdivided into smaller 2-over-2 squares. The eastern three bays at the ground floor are recessed with a continuous long window band behind the piers, organized into three rows of rectangular panes by stainles-steel mullions. The end bay has a chamfered corner behind the corner pier. The 2nd-3rd floor here forms a wide arc, receding behind the piers at the ends; it has no openings, and there is a grey stripes across the middle.

The facade comes out to meet the piers at the 4th-6th floors. Each of the three eastern bays has a pair of 2-over-2 windows with angled ends of narrower panes receding back into the facade. These abut the angled sides of the piers, creating notches that expose the idea of continued, engaged octagons for the piers. These windows have green metal framing, and there are dark-grey bands across each bay. To the west the other window bay has recessed window bands at the top three floors, with green metal framing, each organized as a square center pane, a 4-over-4 square of smaller panes to either side, and very narrow end panes. Dark-grey stone bands above each bay extend out to the facade edge. The roof line at this bay is slightly lower than the rest.

The east facade on the avenue is three bays wide. The ground floor has windows like those on the north facade, but divided into separate bays between the piers, with the chamfered corner at the north bay. The north bay at the 2nd-3rd floor has the end of the receding arc, and the southern two are also windowless, with the ends notches in around the piers. The top floors match the eastern bays of the north facade.

The rear, south-facing facade is largely a mirror-image of the north side, except for the ground floor not being recessed and having no openings, the eastern three bays at the 2nd-3rd floor having only narrow, angled windows at the ends (creating notches bordering the engaged octagonal piers), and the west bay having two sets of metal vents at each floor. A low-sloped copper equipment screen is visible above the roof line.

During a typical weekday, the Long Island Railroad runs 583 trains through Penn Station, New Jersey Transit runs 363, and Amtrak runs 140.

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