Editing Grand Central Terminal (section)

=== Dining Concourse ===
{{multiple image|align=left|total_width=420
|image1=GCT Dining.jpg|alt1=A long hallway with track entrances and food vendors|caption1=Dining Concourse food stalls and track entrances
|image2=Landmark City Photography Exhibit in Grand Central.jpg|alt2=Train car-like public dining area|caption2=One of several public seating areas
}}
Access to the lower-level tracks is provided by the Dining Concourse, located below the Main Concourse and connected to it by numerous stairs, ramps, and escalators. For decades, it was called the Suburban Concourse because it handled commuter rail trains.<ref name="nyt19041224" /> Today, it has central seating and lounge areas, surrounded by restaurants and food vendors.<ref name="directory" /> The shared public seating in the concourse was designed resembling [[Pullman (car or coach)|Pullman traincars]].<ref name="nyt19980802" /> These areas are frequented by the homeless, and as a result, in the mid-2010s the MTA created two areas with private seating for dining customers.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Deffenbaugh |first1=Ryan |title=MTA says homeless, stale décor are cutting into Grand Central food sales |url=https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/mta-says-homeless-stale-decor-are-cutting-grand-central-food-sales |url-access=subscription |access-date=January 24, 2024 |newspaper=[[Crain Communications|Crain's New York]] |date=July 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190725185137/https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/mta-says-homeless-stale-decor-are-cutting-grand-central-food-sales |archive-date=July 25, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/mta-blames-decor-homeless-for-dip-in-grand-central-terminal-dining-11563912103|title=MTA Blames Décor, Homeless for Dip in Grand Central Terminal Dining|last1=Berger|first1=Paul|last2=St. John|first2=Alexa|date=July 24, 2019|newspaper=The Wall Street Journal|access-date=July 24, 2019|archive-date=July 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190724002844/https://www.wsj.com/articles/mta-blames-decor-homeless-for-dip-in-grand-central-terminal-dining-11563912103|url-status=live}}</ref>

The terminal's late-1990s renovation added stands and restaurants to the concourse, and installed escalators to link it to the main concourse level.<ref name="nyt19980802" /> The MTA also spent $2.2 million to install two circular terrazzo designs by [[David Rockwell]] and [[Beyer Blinder Belle]], each 45 feet in diameter, over the concourse's original terrazzo floor.<ref>{{cite news |last=Rohde |first=David S.|author-link=David S. Rohde |title=A Grand Design Takes Shape On the Floor of Grand Central |newspaper=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331  |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/28/nyregion/a-grand-design-takes-shape-on-the-floor-of-grand-central.html |url-access=subscription |date=December 28, 1997 |access-date=February 2, 2019 |archive-date=May 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527070521/https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/28/nyregion/a-grand-design-takes-shape-on-the-floor-of-grand-central.html}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Since 2015, part of the Dining Concourse has been closed for the construction of stairways and escalators to the new LIRR terminal being built as part of [[East Side Access]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mta.info/news-grand-central-east-side-access/2015/10/26/milestone-east-side-access-workers-break-through|title=Milestone for East Side Access: Workers to Break Through Lower Level Floor To Build Housing for Escalators and Stairways to Future LIRR Concourse|website=mta.info|access-date=February 17, 2016|archive-date=February 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160224155456/http://www.mta.info/news-grand-central-east-side-access/2015/10/26/milestone-east-side-access-workers-break-through|url-status=dead}}</ref>

A small square-framed clock is installed in the ceiling near Tracks 108 and 109. It was manufactured at an unknown time by the [[Self Winding Clock Company]], which made several others in the terminal. The clock hung inside the gate at Track 19 until 2011, when it was moved so it would not be blocked by lights added during upper-level platform improvements.<ref name="clocks" />

==== Lost-and-found bureau ====
[[File:GCT Police-LaF.jpg|thumb|alt=Doorways into the offices in the terminal|MTA Police and lost-and-found offices]]
Metro-North's lost-and-found bureau sits near Track 100 at the far east end of the Dining Concourse. Incoming items are sorted according to function and date: for instance, there are separate bins for hats, gloves, belts, and ties.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/04/04/archives/new-jersey-pages-parcel-room-lost-found-grand-central-finds.html|title=Parcel Room Lost & Found; Grand Central 'Finds Treasure And Trash Left By Commuters; 'What Was In the Bag?'; False Teeth and Crutches; Systematized Cartons; Commuter Goes Hungry|last=Wald|first=Matthew L.|date=April 4, 1978|website=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331|access-date=January 5, 2019|archive-date=January 6, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190106010615/https://www.nytimes.com/1978/04/04/archives/new-jersey-pages-parcel-room-lost-found-grand-central-finds.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Lombardi 1996" /> The sorting system was computerized in the 1990s.<ref name="Santora 2002" /> Lost items are kept for up to 90 days before being donated or auctioned off.<ref name="CBS New York 2013" /><ref name="Belson 2007" />

As early as 1920, the bureau received between 15,000 and 18,000 items a year.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1920/09/19/archives/strange-finds-on-trains-more-than-15000-articles-turned-in-annually.html|title=Strange Finds on Trains – More Than 15,000 Articles Turned in Annually at Grand Central|date=September 19, 1920|website=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331|access-date=January 5, 2019|archive-date=January 6, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190106010354/https://www.nytimes.com/1920/09/19/archives/strange-finds-on-trains-more-than-15000-articles-turned-in-annually.html|url-status=live}}</ref> By 2002, the bureau was collecting "3,000 coats and jackets; 2,500 cellphones; 2,000 sets of keys; 1,500 wallets, purses and ID's {{sic|expected=IDs}}; and 1,100 umbrellas" a year.<ref name="Santora 2002" /> By 2007, it was collecting 20,000 items a year, 60% of which were eventually claimed.<ref name="Belson 2007" /> In 2013, the bureau reported an 80% return rate, among the highest in the world for a transit agency.<ref name="Carlson 2015" /><ref name="CBS New York 2013" />

Some of the more unusual items collected by the bureau include fake teeth, prosthetic body parts, legal documents, diamond pouches, live animals, and a $100,000 violin.<ref name="Lombardi 1996" /><ref name="Belson 2007" /> One story has it that a woman purposely left her unfaithful husband's ashes on a Metro-North train before collecting them three weeks later.<ref name="CBS New York 2013" /><ref name="Belson 2007" /> In 1996, some of the lost-and-found items were displayed at an art exhibition.<ref name="RN p. 128" />

[[File:Grand Central dining map.png|center|thumb|upright=2.75|alt=A diagram of the terminal's dining level rooms|Floor plan of the Dining Level]]