Rebecca Maloney
Americas Press Office ,Boston
Designed by Arup, the Fulton Center connects nine New York City subway lines, enhancing the experience for up to 300,000 passengers who will move through the facility daily.
Fulton Center opened to the public on 10 November 2014, following a ribbon-cutting event on 9 November. Fulton Center is a modern subway interchange that revitalises post 9/11 Lower Manhattan.
In 2003, Arup was appointed as prime design consultant to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), and since then has led a 25-member sub-consultant team that included Fulton Center building design architect Grimshaw Architects; historic preservationist and architect Page Ayres Cowley Architects; and HDR|Daniel Frankfurt on existing station rehabilitation. Arup delivered a wide range of multidisciplinary design services as well as overall planning and project management for the $1.4bn federally-funded project through nine integrated construction contracts since November 2004.
“"The station provides an enhanced user experience, one which helps bring the NYCT subway system into the 21st century. This has not just been a team effort, but a marvelous team result, it has been a privilege to work with all the team members of the Fulton Center project team."Uday Durg, senior vice president and program executive, Lower Manhattan Projects for MTA Capital Construction.
The overall work involved a number of distinct sub-projects: construction of the main transit centre building, rehabilitation of five existing stations, rehabilitation and restoration of the federally landmarked historical Corbin Building, construction of an underground pedestrian concourse, and future connections to two other stations. There is also more enhanced street-level access to the subway, including ADA improvements.
“"This project creates a downtown ‘Grand Central’ station that is a beacon for transit users in Lower Manhattan, and it helps remove friction between the various older subway lines built since 1904."Michael Horodniceanu, president of MTA Capital Construction.
Designed by Arup, the Fulton Center connects nine New York City subway lines, enhancing the experience for up to 300,000 passengers who will move through the facility daily.
Fulton Center’s most prominent architectural feature is the oculus: a slanted, hyperboloid domed atrium composed of glass and steel that creates a dynamic civic space. Stretched within that structure is a sculptural centrepiece, a reflective cable net structure with reflective panels that bounce natural light down to the lowest levels of the atrium to help orient passengers passing through the Fulton Center. The Sky Reflector-Net (2013), an integrated artwork, is an engineer, architect, and artist collaboration with Arup, Grimshaw Architects, and James Carpenter Design Associates, commissioned by MTA Arts and Design and MTA Capital Construction Company (MTACC).
Designed by Arup, the Fulton Center connects nine New York City subway lines, enhancing the experience for up to 300,000 passengers who will move through the facility daily.
Integral to this effort is the major historic preservation and restoration of the landmarked Corbin Building as an entry and retail pavilion. Described by contemporaries as the “father of the skyscraper”, prominent New York City architect Francis Hatch Kimball designed the building in the highly decorative Romanesque style, and at the time of construction in 1888-89 it was Manhattan’s tallest building. To make way for the new Fulton Center pavilion, the Corbin Building was initially scheduled for demolition, and Arup hired the historic preservation specialists Page Ayres Cowley Architects (PACA) to research and document the building before it was demolished.
Late in 2003 the Corbin Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and the overall project design was revised to save and incorporate it into the new Fulton Center. The Corbin Building encloses the southern boundary of the new facility and forms a highly visible main entrance at street level, as well as providing retail and commercial space above grade, and building services and utility space within its two levels of existing basement.