MODOC Complex

MODOC Complex. . , The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail's Hoboken Station stands on the former site of three Delaware Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W) yard buildings. Designed by architect Frank Nies, the Coach House, Material Building, and Power House (later known as the Planning Shop) were constructed in 1906 to serve the newly expanded freight and passenger terminal. Over the years, these three buildings on the north side of Long Slip came to be known as the MODOC complex., Nies conceived of these structures as three distinct but contiguous buildings, the Power House being the most monumental and classical in massing and volume. The Coach House, Material Building, Signal Tower, and Carpentry Shop (also demolished) represented his "village concept" for the smaller yard outbuildings. While each of these smaller buildings featured distinguishable rhythmic, polychronistic, and highly distinguished facades, their appearance was unified by concrete and red brick materials, surface treatments, and gabled roofs. These architecturally distinct buildings exemplified DL&W's early attention to quality building design even in the yard., During the century they stood, the buildings underwent extensive interior and exterior modifications to accommodate newer, adjacent buildings and changing functions. Then in the later part of the century many of their contemporaries were demolished as part of subsequent improvement programs, the MODOC complex fell into disrepair and disuse. It was ultimately demolished in October 2000 to make way for the new HBERT alignment and station.