In May 2009, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) capital-construction planners announced that original plans for the Fulton Street Transit Center are back on track, thanks for $424 million in federal stimulus funds. The design for the four-story, glass-and-steel main building, which was scaled back and then nearly abandoned due to budget constraints in 2008, has returned to the drawing board with an opening date of 2014.

The building will be constructed almost exactly as initially planned when ground was broken in 2005, with a revised budget of $1.4 billion, according to MTA Capital Construction President Michael Horodniceanu. The metal-and-glass structure will rise to four stories, topped with a roughly conical oculus that will funnel light into the station’s lower levels.

“It will be a jewel for Lower Manhattan,” said Mr. Horodniceanu.

The new Fulton Street Transit Center building, located at Broadway and Fulton Street, will be home to 26,000 square feet of retail, and will create an underground link to the renovated Corbin Building. Once complete, the expansive station will be the underground hub of 12 subway lines and the World Trade Center PATH station.

Within the station, which more than 300,000 riders pass through daily, the MTA will reconfigure the maze of ramps and passageways. The station also will connect to the new underground Dey Street Pedestrian Concourse between Broadway and Church Street. The concourse -- now structurally complete with only finishing work inside remaining -- will have its own “headhouse” on the southwest corner of Broadway and Dey, to open by 2012. The pedestrian link will connect Transit Center subways with the R/W line at Cortlandt Street and the World Trade Center Transportation Hub.

While 2014 stands as the final completion date for the entire Transit Center, several improved areas inside the station will open before then -- including the northbound platform of the Cortlandt Street R/W station in December 2009. A new entrance at William Street and better A/C-to-4/5 passageways will conclude in 2011. By 2012, renovated 4/5 Fulton Street platforms will open.

Already in 2006 and 2007, the MTA opened new 4/5 platform entrances on Broadway to help reduce platform crowding and reduce train congestion. Other improvements on the Transit Center’s east end include new stairways along the 2/3 platform and a new elevator near William Street.

The MTA also has plans to renovate and incorporate the historic Corbin Building into the Transit Center. Built in 1889, the nine-story Corbin Building sits at the northeast corner of Broadway and John Street and has been called a “proto-skyscraper” for its architectural innovations. According to plans, the building will be fully refurbished, with its ground and lower levels transformed into retail spaces and a station entryway that ties into the main building, as well as to the Dey Street Concourse.

With an eye toward preservation, MTA designers also plan to restore the original Fulton Street station's mosaics and terra cotta tile work along the 4/5 line, again carefully reserving a place for century-old craftsmanship within the contemporary design.

Click here to see the latest information on the construction of the Fulton Street Transit Center.

Click here to view a slide show of Transit Center renderings.
Images courtesy of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.