MTA Presents Design of Fulton Street Transit Center

The MTA has presented its design plans for the new Fulton Street Transit Center, the first of two projects that will contribute to the renewal of Downtown Manhattan by improving the local transportation system.

The Fulton Street Transit Center—designed by the international architecture firm, Grimshaw—features a glass and steel dome that will harvest natural light and reflect it as far underground as the A, C, and 4, 5 platforms and will addresses long-standing obstacles to better access in the area.

Currently, there are more than 30 entrances to the Fulton Street/Broadway-Nassau station complex, many tucked into buildings and difficult to locate. The new center will serve as both entrance and local landmark. It will decongest and rationalize the current station complex that serves nine lines, providing easy transfers among the A, C, J, M, Z, 2, 3, 4, and 5 lines and replacing an underground network of stairs and ramps. This will reduce platform congestion, improving rider safety, and will give better access to people with disabilities.

Connected to the center will be an underground concourse at Dey Street, which will provide a link to the E, R, and W lines, PATH, and the World Trade Center site.

Tentative plans include a level with retail shops and other amenities, including, potentially, restaurants or public balconies. Two levels below ground, it will be filled with natural light refracted from the dome above.

The famed Marine Grill Murals, designed by Fred Dana Marsh in 1913 and installed in the station as part of a project sponsored by MTA Arts for Transit and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Committee, will be preserved at the site.

Construction of the $750 million project is set to begin by year-end, with completion by the end of 2007. It is being funded by the federal government as part of the World Trade Center recovery.

As part of its downtown renewal plan, the MTA is also designing a new terminal at South Ferry that will enhance service on the 1 and 9 lines and improve the connection to the Staten Island Ferry terminal.