January 29, 2008
We Never Knew Ye, Fulton Street Transit Center Dome
Oh, MTA - you and your outlandish idea of putting a glorious glass dome at the renovated Fulton Street Transit Center! The proposed design, unveiled in 2004, seemed an inspiring idea for the agency. But, after years of attempts to start construction, costs have risen to $1.15 billion, from the initially estimated $750 million, causing MTA executive director Eliot Sander to say, "I am sad to say that we cannot build the transit center as currently envisioned in this market." In other words, good-bye dome-oculus thing!
The market factors include expensive construction costs and only one team submitting a bid that ended up being more than double what the MTA expected. The transit center is meant to link 12 subway lines, and while some might feel a glass dome is a folly for the perpetually cash-strapped agency, the Alliance for Downtown New York's president Elizabeth Berger said, "Fulton and Broadway are the crossroads of downtown, and the transit hub as imagined was going to give Lower Manhattan something that it hasn’t had, which is a visible transportation hub."
Then again, let's recall a 2006 quote from the chairwoman of the MTA's Capital Construction and Planning Committee, Nancy Shevell (better known these days as the MTA member who macked with Macca) gave to the NY Times: "There has been a recurring theme among my board members that we don’t want a fancy building and a fancy roof. We are not building cathedrals here." The MTA board has never been a huge fan of the dome.
NY City Council Transportation Committee chair John Liu told the Sun, "There is no question that construction costs are way up. The question is why the whole project itself is taking so long [it was supposed to open in 2007; underground work will start next year so it's now scheduled for 2010, which means 2011]. It's important that the MTA get its arms around this beast, because the project is so vital. The MTA should not blow this opportunity."
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Why not just a glass slopping roof -- isn't the point just to get light down into the station? And sorry, but you know the MTA would never maintain the dome well -- would be permanently filthy in no time.
I have never understood the MTA obsession with tiling subway floors to keep them cleaner -- they still don't wash any other station surface in the system. I rather have my subway grime at my feet than in my face or above my head -- eww!
Why not just a glass slopping roof -- isn't the point just to get light down into the station? And sorry, but you know the MTA would never maintain the dome well -- would be permanently filthy in no time.
I have never understood the MTA obsession with tiling subway floors to keep them cleaner -- they still don't wash any other station surface in the system. I rather have my subway grime at my feet than in my face or above my head -- eww!
the mta isnt following through with something they had up their sleeve, which was bound to be really cool?!
*feigns shock*
yeah, another letdown from the MTA... imagine that!
Typical New York Incompetence strikes again. Imagine how many huge gambling casinos could be built in Las Vegas for less time and money?
Again, London, Paris, Tokyo, REAL CITIES don't put up with this garbage.
"should not blow this opportunity"? Oh Councilman Liu, this is so far in the past tense that your remark lies somewhere between funny and exasperating.
the fulton stop for the 4/5 trains is the grossest chit ever. there's always like 2 inches of water in the floor.
Frankly, the breathless comments about a Grand Central downtown make me sick: the architects are drunk on their modern or post-modern vision of "edifice complexes." These pinheads (like Ghery) have less of an idea of beauty and function than the man who designed the M1A Abrams tank. Grand Central is Beautiful and functional: show me a building built in the last 50 years that is anything more than "UN Lite."
"We are not building cathedrals here."
Has any other quote so perfectly captured everything that has been wrong with the construction of public buildings over the past 50 years?
Awww they never got to build their glittering, ego-stroking, giant lingam.
The MTA: impotent since 1968.
"Again, London, Paris, Tokyo, REAL CITIES don't put up with this garbage."
Yeah, especially London. You know, the city that built a wobbly bridge and a dome that was used for a year and then torn down.
And it looks like they evicted all those buinesses from Broadway and Fulton for nothing.
You don't need a fancy-shmancy dome there, never did, and neither do you need the proposed $2 billion Calatrava PATH station a block away that resembles a fish skeleton in the renderings.
What you do need is a way to run vital links like the #7 train on weekends, find a way to avoid the massive weekend reroutings on all other lines, and express service for night workers. Spend some money on that, instead of shiny stuff.
www.forgotten-ny.com
Yeah, especially London. You know, the city that built a wobbly bridge and a dome that was used for a year and then torn down.
If you are referring to the London Millennium Footbridge they fixed that by installing dampers. As for the Millennium Dome, the original exhibition was removed but the dome is still there and it is now the O2 entertainment complex.
@ Kevin Walsh: Let me first say, I love you, I love forgotten NY, and I think you are one of the best NY'ers of all time.
However, we do need a Calatrava in NYC. I've actually met and discussed this project with Calatrava, and his vision is something wonderful. Certainly, many 'postmodern', or 'post-post modern' or 'G-d knows what the hell this is, but it's expensive' architects, build junk, but Calatrava is truly the best architect/engineer the world has produced since Palladio. He's an architect, but he was an engineer before that, so his design is beautiful but economical. He has the rare reputation of building structures on time, and on budget. I think his PATH station is the most fitting thing that might be placed on that spot. It's functional, it's beautiful, and the roof retracts to let light into the train station.The shape of it, with the moving roof looks like a bird about to take off. Take a gander at any of Calatrava's bridges, his train station in Switzerland, or even his kinetic sculpture at the MOMA. This man is a genius, and I don't throw that term around lightly (cough *Juno* cough). NYC should have a Calatrava. We suffered, and nothing heals suffering like true beauty.