Welcome to the Post Election Friday Afternoon Challenge, DUers! Today: “Reinventing Rome.” *

[JackRiddler]

37. How true. I was lazy and went for the one-liner...

instead of one single google search:

roman bath house penn station

Leading to:

[Penn Station] Main Waiting Room, modeled after the Roman baths of Caracalla
http://pennstationdoc.com/pennstationdoc.com/Story.html

So it's the Roman baths of Caracalla!

Lazy people (as I've proven to be) let Wikipedia do the talking:

The Baths of Caracalla (Italian: Terme di Caracalla) in Rome, Italy were Roman public baths, or thermae, built in Rome between AD 212 and 216, during the reign of the Emperor Caracalla. Chris Scarre provides a slightly longer construction period 211-217 AD.[1] They would have had to install over 2,000 tons of material every day for 6 years in order to complete it in this time period. Records show that the idea for the baths were drawn up by Septimius Severus, and merely completed or opened in the lifetime of Caracalla.[2] This would allow for a longer construction timeframe. They are today a tourist attraction.

*snip*

The baths remained in use until the 6th century when the complex was taken by the Ostrogoths during the Gothic War, at which time the hydraulic installations were destroyed.[3] The bath was free and open to the public. The building was heated by a hypocaust, a system of burning coal and wood underneath the ground to heat water provided by a dedicated aqueduct. It was in use up to the 19th century. The Aqua Marcia aqueduct by Caracalla was specifically built to serve the baths. It was most likely reconstructed by Garbrecht and Manderscheid to its current place.

In the 19th and early 20th century, the design of the baths was used as the inspiration for several modern structures, including St George's Hall, Liverpool and Pennsylvania Station in New York City. At the 1960 Summer Olympics, the venue hosted the gymnastics events.

See the bolded sentence? How much futher along are we?