Fulton Street Transit Center (New York City, New York)

 retail shopping center, interesting place, subway station, Modern (architecture)

The Fulton Center is a $1.4 billion project by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public agency of the state of New York. The plan included station rehabilitations, new underground passageways, and an above-ground station entrance building at the intersection of Fulton Street and Broadway in New York City, above several existing stations.

The project was intended to improve access to and connections between 11 MTA subway services stopping at the Fulton Street, the Chambers Street – World Trade Center / Park Place and the Cortlandt Street stations, with connections to the PATH service at the World Trade Center station in Lower Manhattan. Funding for the construction project, which began in 2005, dried up for several years, with no final approved plan and no schedule for completion. Plans for the transit center, however, were rejuvenated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the project was completed in June 2014.

Designed by Grimshaw Architects and James Carpenter Design, the center is futuristic, with an interior featuring gleaming stainless steel surfaces. The main building for the Fulton Center project is a three-story building clad in reflective glass and black steel, with a tilted, domed, 53-foot diameter oculus on top, clad in silver aluminuml, that draws in natural light into the main building and the uptown platform of the 4 5 station. The centerpiece of Fulton Center is the Sky Reflector Net strung across the oculus with a distinctive cable knit structure. Sun, clouds, rain and snow are all visible from inside the building. Using small, aluminum mirrors, natural light is amplified throughout the open spaces, penetrating the depths of the subway concourse two levels below the street.

As part of the complex, the 1889 Corbin Building at the corner of Broadway and John Street was completely renovated and its ground floor and basement incorporated into the new transit center. Linking the Fulton Building to the Corbin is a 9-story interstitial building clad in silver metal and reflective glass, with narrow horizontal louvers. This section is set back from the streetwall of the Fulton and Corbin Buildings.