Last months, after the Doomsday winds died down the MTA could look toward a steadier short-term future, Capital Construction President Micheal Horodniceanu issued an aggressively bold schedule for the oft-delayed Fulton St. Hub. He guaranteed a 2014 completion date for the project now nearly 100 percent over budget. “What I present today, I stand by. I expect you to hold me accountable to it,” he said nearly three weeks ago.
Earlier this week, at the Community Board 1 meeting, Horodniceanu repeated his claims. While the project should have been wrapped up two years ago, it will open on schedule in 2014. “We’re back on track,” he said. “By the time we’re done, you’re going to have one of the most elegant stations in the system.”
Matt Dunning of The Tribeca Trib, a Lower Manhattan community paper, had more from the meeting:
Speaking before Community Board 1’s World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee on June 8, Horodniceanu said most of the planned improvements to the station would be finished by the end of 2012. “This is by no means one project,” he said. “What you’re going to see is a progressive roll-out of customer benefits as we go along. The important part is that we’ve reached a consensus on cost and schedule.”
Two pieces of the massive station reconstruction are already finished. The agency unveiled an improved 2/3 platform in 2006, and a new entrance to the 4/5 Train on the east side of Broadway at Maiden Lane in 2007. Horodniceanu said he expected the northbound platform of the Cortlandt Street R/W station—closed in 2005 due to construction on the World Trade Center site—to reopen in December 2009.
More improvements to the station, including a new William Street entrance and easier connection between the A/C and 4/5 Trains, would be complete in 2011, Horodniceanu said. The new Dey Street entrance and concourse that will eventually connect the station to the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, as well as a rehabilitated 4/5 platform would be done 2012…
The new transit center is designed to, piece by piece, replace the labyrinth of ramps and stairways that make up the current Fulton Street station. A balcony of retail stores will encircle the main concourse of the new station, one level below the street at Broadway and Fulton, with direct access to the 4/5 Train platforms. The A/C platforms and the Dey Street concourse will be on the level below. The main concourse will be housed in a four-story, glass-and-steel “head house” topped with an angled, cone-shaped dome to allow natural light to reach even the lowest levels of the complex.
For now, we are left with construction updates. MTA officials warn that the agency won’t begin award retail licenses for another three years despite interested tenants, and considering the pace of the project so far, this schedule remains ambitious.
With much of the money, however, coming from the federal government, I believe this project has reached a tipping point. The funds are there, and the political pressure will be on the MTA to get it built. For now, I have to remain cautiously optimistic, but when word of a delay or budget problems come down, I won’t be surprised.
10 comments
If the main purpose of the project is to have retail under one roof, then they should call it a mall rather than a transit center. Transit centers evoke the image of a place dedicated to transit.
Well, if this is a four-story building, and the retail is one level below the street, I wouldn’t exactly call it a mall – the retail is probably more remeniscent of Penn Station or the former WTC PATH station. I think the four aboveground stories are supposed to be MTA offices. Maybe this will replace some of the controversial, expensive real estate they’ve got elsewhere in the city. (Though I fail to understand how they could accomplish developing usable office space while still allowing daylight to get from the roof to the basement).
I still don’t understand why couldn’t just improve underground circulation and leave well enough alone at street level. Can someone explain again why we need a bland-looking mall in Lower Manhattan?
To begin with, we’re past the point of decision. The buildings formerly at the site are gone forever. Something needs to be built to replace them. The merits of the new design are obviously a matter of opinion. It does not look like “a bland mall” (or any kind of mall) to me, and it certainly looks a lot better than what was there before.
Cities and states build grand public spaces. The current Penn Station fulfils the same function as the old one, but in a hopelessly dull structure that nobody likes. Grand Central Terminal is clearly far more ornate than it needs to be for the simple purpose of getting commuters to their trains.
So yeah, this design is clearly more than was needed for the limited aim of improving access and circulation in the station. But as I say, grand public spaces are part of any great city. Whether this particular space will meet that description remains to be seen, but the animating purpose behind it makes plenty of sense.
I understand perfectly well that the buildings are gone. In my opinion it was a dumb move. That’s all I’m saying.
> Cities and states build grand public spaces
No, private industry does. The New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad built the original midtown terminals. It’s the Penn Station replacement that was State-sponsored.
Form is great, but functionality is primary, and every year of delay is another year without function.
Wrong. Cities and states do too. Look at City Hall, for instance; or the Capitol.
They want the rent money to use to pay union OT on LIRR.
All major transit centers should have some sort of retail/commerce function. Imagine Grand Central if there were no restaurants, or no place to buy reading materials or anything else. It would suck. I know I commented in a previous post that this station is redundant, but it will be nice to have light coming into the station, some decent architecture on the site, and yes, some convenient retail.
Someday…
[…] comments from Horodniceanu came four months ago. Although there is still plenty of time for the project to yet again fall behind schedule, the […]