Oh what the heck, I might as well provide my opinion as well. As my previous posts have indicated, I think a visitors center/museum/interpretive center is essential. I like the idea of the entering from the street level and exiting into the yard (enter from the 21st century and exit into the early 20th century). The general design looks very attractive and appropriate to me.
For how NOT to do it check this link of the new Pennsylvannia State Railroad Museum:
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www.railpictures.net]
The location does raise the hair on my neck. It does seem to risk overwhelming and intruding into the historic ambience of the east end of the yard. But any location is going to have some trade-offs, and the folks doing the work seem to have done their homework. Which is not to say I agree with the location decision, but I doubt that any location would please everybody.
The Friends deserve a lot of credit for getting things this far. There seems to have been a reasonable amount of "public" input already, and my guess is the Commission as decision maker will provide for more comment before it is over.
In my view the pluses greatly outweight the minuses.
There is a huge overall issue regarding maintaining the historic integrity of the property. But a visitors center offers huge benefits.
JBW