The most prominent landmark of the Garment District is the Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden complex , a combined box-and-drum structure that swallows up millions of commuters into its train station belly while housing Knicks basketball and Rangers hockey games. There's nothing memorable about the railway station, which has incurred a fair amount of resentment because the original Penn Station, demolished in 1963 to make way for it, is now hailed as a lost masterpiece, one that brought an air of dignity to the neighborhood. As 1960s architectural historian Vincent Scully lamented following the passing of the original, "through it one entered the city like a god… one now scuttles in like a rat."

A whimsical reminder of the old days is the Hotel Pennsylvania on the corner of Seventh Avenue and 33rd Street. A main venue for Glenn Miller and other big swing bands of the 1940s, it keeps the phone number that made it famous - tel 212/736-5000 (under the old system, "PENNsylvania 6-5000") the title of Miller's affectionate hit. It has recently been refurbished, and now bravely claims to offer "New York's newest rooms."

Madison Square Garden

• Madison Square Garden

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