Thoughts on Transit Hubs

An expert in transit law and an advocate for historical preservation, Adrian Untermeyer currently works as the Assistant Director of Rail Inter-Carrier Agreements at NJ Transit. In 2016, he led a successful effort to add a public piano to the former control center of the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

Since then, he has drafted a plan to renovate the bus terminal. The Port Authority included some parts of his proposal in their recently approved $10 billion redesign.

Adrian sat down to speak with Hunter Journalism Student Andrew Balaban to talk about the history, future, and overall importance of the Port Authority Bus Terminal. His responses were edited for length and clarity.

Question:

Can you tell me a little bit about your background, and how you got interested in transit law?

Answer:

Yeah, I mean it all kind of began with my grandfather taking me down to look at trains and planes. He grew up as a child of the World War 2 era, living between the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Rock Island Railroad in Chicago. So, he got the bug, and he made sure that I got the bug. I grew up near the Metro Railroad tracks out in Chicago area, and as I grew through life started to see more and more how public transportation, and rail in particular, were able to improve society in addition to just being something interesting for a 5- or 6-year-old kid to stare at as it’s rolling by.

The path towards law really started to develop, I would say, over the last 10-15 years when you start to realize that it’s much more complicated than just laying down some track, putting up some signals, buying some equipment, and getting rolling. The legal and political forces that are out there have always been a part of our transportation network since the very beginning, going back to land grants and the westward expansion of railroads. All the way up to the present, with all the major infrastructure projects that we see under the recent legislation that passed and all the various state and local initiatives are happening too. When you’re a railroad attorney, you are right in the middle of all of those items. And so that’s sort of how I got ‘the bug’ and what I’m up to today.

Question:

How does the Port Authority bus terminal kind of fit into New York’s like regional transit infrastructure?

Answer:

Yeah, it’s kind of one-of-a-kind. I mean, it’s the biggest and busiest bus terminal in the world. So it is this behemoth sitting there. It really is New York’s only major bus facility. 

And I think we need to start thinking of these hubs as constellations. In large part, the Interstate Network is centered in that Midtown area, so you have Pennsylvania Station, Grand Central Terminal, Port Authority Bus Terminal, all the curbsides, all the other activity that’s happening there. So many people come in and out of this region via bus, and they’re the people who are what we now call essential workers. So you cannot underestimate the impact of this place on the regional mobility effort.

We want to not just be designing for the customer in the future, but also the customer of today, making sure that wherever you come from, whatever your background is, you’re able to make those seamless transit connections. 

I think that just as the elements of Penn Station that are starting to take shape and just as our beautiful Grand Central Terminal across town are considered or will be considered temples of transit, I want that Port Authority Bus Terminal to be a temple of transit as well. And to be such a thing, yes, you have to be beautiful, but you also have to be highly functional.

Question:

What’s your personal connection to the Port Authority Bus Terminal?

Answer:

Oh gosh! So yeah, I had been using that facility my entire life, I grew up in the Connecticut area. So, you were either driving, or you were taking the train, or taking the bus if you were coming to New York City. Oftentimes that meant the bus.

You know the difference in experience between Grand Central terminal, where people who have a lot of resources and political capital, versus people who are using the bus terminal, which is obviously a lower-income demographic. That experience was pretty stark for me. Beyond just noticing the physical conditions of the building from an early age, you also noticed the impact that it had on people. When a building is older, a little bit more worn, shall we say, you see that direct link to the customer experience.

For this project in particular, you know, after the September 11th attacks there had previously been the Control Center in this area, that was really out in the middle of everywhere. Everybody could look at it, they would see guys in ties walking around as if they knew what was going on and, you know, monitoring the situation. But in the post 9/11 environment, having a facility like that out in the open obviously was not something you could continue to do.

So, there was just a vacant space kind of in there with a bunch of equipment knocked over and it wasn’t the best-looking environment. Since it was so prominent, it felt to me, at least, and I’m sure to others, that us as bus come customers, we didn’t matter as much. You know, it wasn’t worth tidying up for the likes of us. So, it seemed like a wonderful opportunity to sort of transform at least one element of how people pass through that facility.

Question:

And how did you go about transforming that element?

Answer:

 I had been toying with the idea of doing something in that space, that fishbowl space. And I really wanted to put a piano there. I heard about what was happening over in Paris with pianos in transit hubs, and I had also heard a little bit about Sing for Hope, a group in New York City that placed pianos in public parks and plazas during the summer.

I knew that I couldn’t just go off on the street and find a piano. I needed to find a group that could help take care of the piano, ensure that it was not only in good working order but also available in general and able to be moved into that space. So, by finding Sing for Hope and connecting them with a donation and getting everybody on the Port Authority side interested and involved, it took a bit of a shuffle over a couple of weeks in the fall of 2016.

Behind the scenes, with a friend in The New York Times, I had him start making phone calls, and asking questions. When we eventually got the piano in space, he wrote a very nice article about it, quite humorous, I would say. That was really the catalyst that got this project over the finish line, and the piano has been there ever since.

Seeing grizzled commuters who have their paths worked out, you know, they do the same thing every day, at that point, pre-COVID, seeing them stop and adjust their routine a little bit, and wave or appreciate the music—it was absolute magic.

Question:

That’s great. What problems were you trying to solve by piano to the space?

Answer:

Oh, I mean it. It was really to put a shot in the arm of this facility, which is dubbed New York’s most hated building. It’s like a place where a couple of years back, you know, the Port Authority’s Board of Commissioners had been hearing complaints left and right from their ridership about this facility.

So, I wanted to send a message to the customers and everybody else who uses the building that they matter, and music and art are probably the best ways to do that.

Question:

What sort of things do you think the Port Authority should keep in mind when they’re planning on replacing or renovating [the terminal]?

Answer:

In my before-times, I did make a plan for the bus terminal. It was called Green Station, and I was pleased that the Port Authority recognized in their environmental work some of the elements of that plan. In particular, they called out the addition of green space, which they’ve agreed to incorporate.

When you have a facility that’s buses, and exhaust, and chaos, having some trees and flowers really goes a long way toward introducing a little bit of humanity into space.

 I also think that New York needs great architecture, but more than that, it needs functional architecture. So while, of course, you want to have something that’s big and beautiful and eye-catching, the operation really has to come first.