In an effort to enliven a dead spot on the avenue, the east subway entrance at 4th Avenue between 9th and 10th Streets in Brooklyn, seen here last year, have been reopened. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
As part of the extensive Culver Viaduct rehabilitation project, the MTA has reopened a subway entrance that had been closed for more than four decades. Transit announced today that the long-shuttered entrance underneath the viaduct on the east side of 4th Ave. between 9th and 10th Streets has been reopened, pleasing neighbors who had viewed the conditions under the viaduct as unsafe blight. Pedestrian advocates too are happy with the reopening as straphangers will now no longer have to cross a busy and dangerous 4th Ave.
“During the initial phases of this project, we decided it was the perfect opportunity to reopen the east side station house on 4th Avenue,” NYC Transit President Thomas F. Prendergast said in a statement. “We are grateful to the elected officials whose contributions allowed us to do even more than we had planned at this historic station.”
The project, as I reported last year, was funded through an $800,000 grant from Assembly Representative Joan Millman’s office and $2 million from Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz as well. Both politicians praised the authority for its work. “The opening of the east side entrance to the 4th Avenue-9th Street station is a big win for the community and the first stage of what will be the eventual transformation of Fourth Avenue into a grand ‘Brooklyn Boulevard,’” Markowitz said. “Soon, the area adjacent to this entrance will be filled with retail, and the exterior archways and windows will be opened and restored to their original glory.”
Despite today’s reopening, Transit says it still has to put the finishing touches on the revived entrance and has a ways to go as it completes the station renovation. The doors that open onto 4th Ave. are temporary, and those that open onto 10th St. will remain closed until later this year. The historic arch, covered by billboards on both sides, will be unveiled by the end of the year as well as Transit works to give the station a “lighter, more open look.”
Other improvements to the 4th Ave. area include a fresh coat of paint for the underside of the viaduct, improved lighting above the sidewalks and new retail storefronts for the both the east and west side of the streets. Transit plans to award contracts for those stores in 2013. All told, it’s a welcome improvement to what is an ugly but well-trod block along 4th Ave.
19 comments
This is very exciting news, especially since the population is mostly on the East side of 4th avenue, and crossing 4th Ave takes forever. You could always enter via the BMT platforms and then head up to the IND, but it’s nice this is finally open.
I forgot to mention this, I saw the station signs outside the doors hung last Friday, assumed that it was either open or just about to open.
Seems like a good choice…
…but I have to ask, did they include handicapped access in this project? Because it’s a major renovation, they are *legally required to*.
Marty’s ‘Brooklyn Blvd’ is 4th Ave with trees. Both are designed/envisioned to facilitate motor vehicle traffic only and as such, we should save our $ as 4th Ave is quite effective in this regard
Did 4th ave used to have trolleys/streetcars back in the day? Is this why its so damn wide, or was it engineered specifically for cars?
I’m pretty sure 4th Ave did not have trolleys or elevated lines previously. There were streetcars and elevateds on 5th Ave and an elevated on 3rd Ave.
I have always wondered whether the construction of the 4th Ave line ended up widening the Avenue, because it’s around 60th street, where the express track disappears, that 4th avenue narrows to 2 lanes and transitions from mixed use with industrial to almost entirely residential. I suspect the widening predates the building of the Culver Viaduct, since it doesn’t look like the arch was reconstructed to allow for a wider street beneath it.
Fourth Ave was widened in the late 1950s and many bldgs on both sides of the avenue where torn down or had their lawns/stairs shorn off. This accounts for the odd placement of the BMT subway grates in the middle of the avenue (on the traffic islands) instead of on the sidewalk where they originally were. I believe it was widened in anticipation of the Verrazano Bridge opening in ’64 and all the traffic feeding onto the Gowanus/BQE. Also probably why there are so many auto shops and emtpy spaces, as well as some ugly 1960s architecture to replace larger bldgs that were torn down.
Are you certain of this, because there’s plenty of old construction on both sides of the avenue that remain from long before the 1950’s, many of the churches, the public bath house on President and 4th, several schools front the street. I can believe that perhaps the sidewalks were narrowed significantly, there are many spots where the sidewalk width is downright appallingly narrow. And that can explain why the grates needed to be moved to the median.
Yes. Many, but not all, old bldgs were torn down. You can see how some schools and churches are literally a few feet from the curb, and how the staircases wind off to the side of the bldgs instead of straight down to the sidewalk as they originally did. Many churches, schools and apt houses had lawns in front that were also ripped up.
Well sort of was. It was originally a very stately parkway … like Park Avenue. Especially at the turn of the century. I’m not sure (if as the other person mentions) it was built this way because of the subway below it. But it was that side of Brooklyn’s grand avenue in the parkway tradition. Here’s a photo of it at Brownstoner http://www.brownstoner.com/blo.....enue-alre/
I could write a long post about how terrible 4th Ave. is from a livable streets perspective. The no-turn streets and wider pedestrian islands is a minor start but from the zoning and usage of street-front space to the width of the road, it’s just a bad street right now.
Agreed. Reminds of Queens Blvd.
Goodness, Queens Boulevard is worse. The don’t walk sign starts flashing about 2 seconds after it signifies walk. But I can attest that 4 Ave is truly awful for pedestrians. Short crosswalk times and the sidewalk is tiny in some spots. Some nice bars on 4 Ave, but accessibility generally sucks.
I think the DOT should make it a priority to identify disasters like 4th Avenue and fix them, not just slap band-aids on them.
I live a couple blocks from McGuinness Blvd in Greenpoint. Another disaster. Pedestrians wait in the median all the time. I never do–twice in two years I’ve seen a traffic light pole that has gotten wiped out.
I found this photo on nycsubway.org
http://nycsubway.org/perl/show?115248
Shows this reopened entrance as it was– November 10, 2010.
Thanks, Chet. That’s a great find. As a comparison, Transit posted photos to Twitter (here and here). Looks much better today.
looks like they did a great job of shining up and restoring the tiles to the original look of IND mezzanines. what are the odds this will be the case for the rest of the 4th ave and smith/9th st stations?
Excellent. Aside from this obvious benefit of the new entrance, this will help make a sometimes desolate transfer a lot less desolate.
Woohoo!! Looking forward to using it on Tuesday when I am next through that station. I would have loved it to be open when I lived on 10th street and used the station every day. Now how about the closed exits at 7th Ave on the Q/B? (If I recall, the MTA said ‘hell no’ to that a few years ago.)
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