Penn Station's destruction did help drive the the creation of the Landmark preservation law in NYC, but it also took a lot of work to put teeth into it. When Helmsley and Zeckendorf basically were going to bury Grand Central under buildings, it took a massive fight and several bouts in court before a final ruling that the law was legal, there was at least one ruling that the law was illegal, that it violated the rights of property owners, etc, etc. One of the chief architects of the defense of Grand Central was Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis, she kind of spearheaded what happened. I often wonder had for example NYC rejected the razing of Penn Station if the courts wouldn't have ruled against them, the 10 years between the razing of Penn Station and the final verdict about GCT was a big deal in terms of attitudes of judges and society with issues like this.
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