Second Ave. Sagas

One Vanderbilt Renderings: Before and After

Written by

Benjamin Kabak

in

I’ve tinkered with the site a little today to bring some before and after images of the planned transit upgrades for the One Vanderbilt development. For background on the $200 million in expansion word SL Green is prepared to spend, make sure you check out my morning post first, and then come back here for some good ol’ before-and-after fun. All images in this post are courtesy of Kohn Pedersen Fox.

These new street entrances will bring straphangers to and from the Shuttle platform along East 42nd Street.

By narrowing columns and staircases as well as installing a new fare control area, developers and the MTA hope to improve passenger circulation in the cramped IRT mezzanine above the 4, 5 and 6 platforms at Grand Central.

Narrowing columns will also create more space for subway riders waiting on the IRT platforms and computer renderings that look like Robert de Niro alike.

Opening up unused mezzanine space will improve congested conditions.

A new entrance from the Shuttle platform will provide direct access to One Vanderbilt for those entering the building.

Comments

14 responses to “One Vanderbilt Renderings: Before and After”

  1. Charlie

    Does anyone really believe that Robert De Niro will use this station?

    Reply
  2. Subutay Musluoglu

    The street entrances in the first rendering are on the south side of East 42 Street just east of Lexington Avenue – in front of the old Mobil Company building and that’s the Chanin Building in the left hand side of the rendering, with Lexington Avenue in between. As such, this location is too far east of the Shuttle platforms – most likely this is additional access to the Lexington Avenue Line mezzanine. Improved access to the Shuttle would have to take place directly under and adjacent to the new 1 Vanderbilt Avenue tower, since that is where the Shuttle mezzanine and platforms are located.

    Reply
  3. tacony

    These improvements look great. I’d love to see this treatment applied to other overcrowded, decrepit stations. Union Square? West 4th? How about the long-discussed Avenue A-exit to the 1st Ave L train station? Why doesn’t this administration work on an ambitious round of upzonings around other transit hubs with these kinds of station improvements as requirements for new construction? (With Affordable Housing, of course…)

    It’s a shame that other than the fact that they’re extremely crowded on weekdays, the GCT subway platforms and mezzanines are generally already in great condition. It’d be nice to get developers to fix up the stations that are falling apart.

    Reply
    1. JMB

      Agreed. W4th hub and the 145th hub uptown both could be upzoned to take advantage of the available transit there. Unfortunately too much moneyed interests in the Village will prevent anything destroying their exclusive, low-rise neighborhood. Uptown is still a possibility I suppose.

      Reply
  4. Russell

    These are really useful renderings. I’m excited for these improvements. Thanks Ben!

    Reply
  5. BoerumHillScott

    Nice imagery, thanks.

    What makes the improvement funding mechanism work here is that it is sitting on the most valuable office land in the country, and the current zoning is far less that the maximum economically viable building, probably in the range of $400 million.
    This allows for trade-offs between zoning increases and transit improvements.

    There are not a lot of other places in the city where one project can get over $200 million worth of zoning adjustments from the city.

    Reply
  6. TM

    I hope the staircases between the Lex and the #7 Train are not narrowed. They’re already very crowded.

    Reply
    1. Gary Reilly

      It looks like the footprint of the staircases is narrowed – freeing up platform space – but the functional width of the stairway is not.

      I just spent a year and half commuting through here almost daily, and I like the look of these changes.

      Reply
  7. Eric F

    Off Topic, but Fulton Center tacked on 60-90 days to its construction completion date from June 26. So the 60 has elapsed. Any idea if they’ll open it in the next 16 days to make the 90 mark?

    Reply
    1. Elvis Delago

      Oh, I’m sure they will. They’d never have said 60-90 days if they weren’t certain they could deliver on that promise. 🙂

      Reply
    2. BoerumHillScott

      I walked through this morning, and not a lot of visible change since June 26.
      They could probably take down construction walls and declare it to be open at any time, but a lit of finishing is left to be done.

      Reply
      1. Eric F

        Thanks. At least they’re moving forward,

        Reply
  8. Matthias

    Sidewalks need to be widened to make room for those street level entrances.

    Reply
  9. Don Quixote Cody

    That’s some nice stuff.

    Reply

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