Fulton Center oculus cladding began in June

The Fulton Center is on track for full completion in June 2014, bringing vast improvements to the busiest subway complex in Lower Manhattan. Its newly simplified name accompanies what already is becoming a more streamlined, easy-to-navigate station -- with several renovated areas now open between different train platforms.

The latest project details were shared at the Community Board 1 World Trade Center committee meeting this week, with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) presenting milestones recently past and more ahead in the coming months.

(View the full presentation here.) 

Along with adopting its new moniker of "Fulton Center" -- a downsizing of the Fulton Street Transit Center name -- this spring the MTA reopened the renovated permanent underpass between the A/C station and 4/5 southbound platform. New entrances at the corner of Fulton and Broadway leading to the 4/5 southbound platform also are now open, with new tiling, rails, stairways, and signs.

At the main building on Broadway at Fulton Street, steel was completed early in 2012 and crews are now installing the glass curtain wall. On the upper oculus structure, the glass roof is now in place, and cladding is wrapping around the cylindrical sides. (Read more about the "solar reflector shell" here.) The building will be fully enclosed by late this summer, and the MTA already is working towards issuing the master lease RFP for the retail space this summer.

A new section of the A/C mezzanine recently opened inside the station, replacing the old switchback ramps with a level, open-view corridor clad in luminescent glass tiles. At the eastern end of that mezzanine, escalators are now being installed. The entire A/C mezzanine is slated for March 2013 opening.

Crews are working to complete the new Dey Street entry house and Dey Street Concourse by late summer 2012. They are now completing electrical and other utility work, and installing the new elevator and fare-control gates at the north end of the Cortlandt Street R station.

Across Broadway, the historic Corbin Building continues to undergo rehabilitation both inside and out. One of the city's first skyscrapers, the 1889 building's detailed terra-cotta facade is being restored, while new windows are going in and interior spaces are being renovated. At its base, new escalators are being installed that will take subway riders from John Street down to the northbound 4/5 platform -- and into the main building -- by the end of 2012.

Construction of the new 150 William Street entrance is on track for completion this fall, as is the new elevator outside 129 Fulton Street (at the northeast corner of Fulton and Nassau). That new entrance will make the J/Z platforms ADA compliant, though the J/Z southbound platform is closed to transfers from other Fulton Center lines this summer for elevator work to proceed.

Progress at the new Fulton Center remains steady, on its way to serving more than 300,000 daily riders when it opens two years from now. By 2015 or 2016, it will tie into the Port Authority's new WTC Transportation Hub, linking to both the PATH and E subway stations, extending westward into Battery Park City.

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