When the Fulton Center opens in lower Manhattan at 5 a.m. Monday, subway riders will be treated to something they won’t find at any other underground station in the city: natural light. Streaming through a 53-foot diameter oculus atop the center’s 108-foot pavilion, light filters through hundreds of coated aluminum panels designed to transfer it to where commuters will be passing through turnstiles two-stories below street level. “I expect them to come in and see something they’ve never seen,” said Michael Horodniceanu, president of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Capital Construction Company, the entity responsible for the project. “This is something new, this is something exciting and this is one of a kind…and I hope people will be able to see that.” The MTA has billed the new center as a Grand Central Terminal for lower Manhattan. It extends the continuing revitalization of the neighborhood rocked by the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Only last week, the 104-story One World Trade Center, which stands near where the Twin Towers collapsed, welcomed its first office workers. Inside the Fulton Center are a spiral staircase, a glass elevator shaft, wide walkways for smooth passenger flow, stone tiling, brightly lit concourses and dozens of digitized screens displaying public-service announcements, train information and advertising. The cost of the project was $1.4 billion, officials said, which included $847 million provided by a special congressional appropriation granted following Sept. 11. About 300,000 commuters are expected to pass through each day, officials said. Subway riders will be able to connect with or transfer between nine subway lines: the 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, J, R and Z. By 2015, the center should also provide links with the World Trade Center PATH station. Eventually, the facility will provide access to the E and 1 subway lines, Dr. Horodniceanu said. Not everyone, however, was impressed by the structure or its opening. Philip McManus, of the Queens Public Transit Committee, said the money would have been better spent elsewhere in the city. “Transportation is so bad in Queens, especially in Rockaway,” said Mr. McManus, who added that he believed the Fulton Center was “pretty, but it doesn’t really make much of a difference.” “The outer boroughs do count, and we’re not second-class citizens,” he said. The facility also will be a commercial and retail space. The MTA worked with Australian developer Westfield Group, which serves as master leaseholder. Several levels of the pavilion, which remain under construction, will have restaurants, stores and kiosks, officials said. Before the Fulton Center’s opening, subway riders needed to navigate through a series of ramps, stairs and passageways to catch their trains. MTA Chairman and Chief Executive Thomas F. Prendergast said the center was proof the city was “thinking big.” “Great cities like New York need great public spaces,” he said. “I’m proud to see this new symbol of our city’s strength open its doors.”
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 22:55:07 +0000
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