Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer yesterday gave his approval to a plan by Vornado Realty Trust to demolish the Hotel Pennsylvania on the east side of Seventh Avenue between 32nd and 33rd Street and replace it with a 1,200-foot-high skyscraper.

He maintained that the proposed new huge tower, designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli, "represents a unique opportunity to encourage high-density transit-oriented development, strengthen the nation's largest central business district, and improve local and regional mass-transit systems."

"The scale of the proposed project," he continued, "is consistent with buildings in the surrounding area and the City's development goals and policies is appropriate for the development site."

The only building in the surrounding area that comes close to the very tall proposed tower is the Empire State Building on Fifth Avenue between 33rd and 34th Street, a building whose isolation from neighboring skyscrapers has made it the most visible tower in New York City and a global icon.

Mr. String had some reservations and recommendations "about pedestrian flow issues, open space and a number of smaller issues that are likely surmountable," according to an article today at observer.com by Eliot Brown.

The planned 1,200-foot skyscraper, which is called 15 Penn Plaza, next goes in the city's Uniform Land Use Review Process, to the City Planning Commission and then the City Council.

Last month, Community Board 5 voted 36 to 1 against the planned tower and several board members told the developer to come back when it had a tenant "in-hand," according to Mr. Brown. In 2007, Vornado had an agreement with Merrill Lynch for the tower but that deal was interrupted by the financial crisis.

The Vornado plan calls for about $100 million in transit improvements including the refurbishing of an underground passageway between Herald Square and Seventh Avenue. Many preservationists, however, had hoped that the Landmarks Preservation Commission would designate the hotel as an official city landmark as it was designed by McKim Mead & White to complement the colonnade of the same firm's greatly lamented Pennsylvania Station. The handsome hotel building was at one time the city's largest and played host to numerous famous bands. The commission, however, decided not to hold any hearings on the proposed designations.

The Vornado plan, however, did have support from the Regional Plan Association, Madison Square Garden and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign even though some preservationists argued that a better plan would be for Vornado to develop its very low-rise properties on the block just to the north.

At one point, it looked as if the immediate vicinity would get several major new towers if Madison Square Garden moved into a revamped James Farley Post Office building on the west side of Eighth Avenue between 31st and 33rd Street, but the Garden recently decided to renovate its existing circular building on the east side of the avenue.

In other major developments in the Herald Square area, Women's Wear Daily had an article Monday that said that Macy's was planning a very major modernization of its full block store that fronts on the west side of Herald Square from 34th to 35th Streets.