Reply With QuoteIt's not like they don't have anywhere to move to in that emptying part of the city.
120 businesses forced out of Lower Manhattan for a glassier subway station
It's not like they don't have anywhere to move to in that emptying part of the city.
From LowerManhattan.info:
MTA Retools Fulton Street Transit Center's Design
July 19, 2005
http://www.lowermanhattan.info/news/...reet_70331.asp
Dey Street Concourse
In a presentation to Community Board 1 (CB1) last week, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) capital planners outlined the revised design scheme for the ambitious Fulton Street Transit Center. The new plan scales back several features to reduce the project's overall budget by $40 million, while keeping most of the key elements that will link 12 subway lines and the World Trade Center PATH station.
MTA representatives William Wheeler, director of project development, and Lois Tendler, director of government and community relations, walked through the changes with the CB1 board and other downtown stakeholders on July 13.
Visually, the most notable change calls for a smaller glass-and-steel oculus or "cone" at the center's Broadway and Fulton Street main entrance. Though scaled back in size, the oculus will still let in natural light down to the lower-level subway platforms, and will rearrange the station's operations and mechanical spaces. In addition, the new entrance configuration will bring part of the 23,500 square feet of retail space closer to the sidewalk, making shops more visible to pedestrians.
The Dey Street tunnel -- which connects the main station to the R/W lines at Cortlandt Street -- also has been reduced in size, with 11 feet trimmed off of its width to better fit within underground infrastructure. Meanwhile, the corridor that would link the R/W to the E line has been eliminated altogether, along with the free subway transfer it would have created.
In the main transfer area of the station, called the "mixing bowl," planners will widen the mezzanine for better access to the A and C lines. Currently, those lines are accessible via long ramps and stairwells interconnected with the J/M/Z and 4/5 train platforms.
The MTA continues to make steady progress to acquire real estate for the transit center, assist in tenant relocation, and install underpinnings to stabilize neighboring buildings' foundations.
In particular, the MTA is working with a special contracting team for the preservation and incorporation of the Corbin Building into the design. The nine-story Corbin Building (at John Street and Broadway) is one of Lower Manhattan's unique pieces of architecture. The 1889 structure was designed by one of the first skyscraper architects, Francis Kimball, and is only 20 feet wide but 160 feet long along John Street.
The Fulton Street Transit Center's construction will occur in phases, the first of which began in winter 2004 at Broadway at Maiden Lane (on the east) and Liberty Street (on the west), where new entrances to the southern end of the 4/5 platform are being built.
The main entrance "cone" will be shortened and reorganized
Work on the Dey Street tunnel is also recently underway, and will take place through July 2007. As part of its construction, the Cortlandt Street station will close for six months beginning in mid-to-late August 2005.
Other elements, such as foundation and superstructure work for the main entrance and new A/C mezzanine construction, will take place from 2006 until the project's completion in winter 2008.
The MTA is working with the Dept. of Transportation to ensure accessibility for neighborhood businesses, as well as to maintain traffic lanes on Broadway and cross streets. The authority also is addressing community and environmental issues to ensure that noise and dust is minimized during construction, and that contractors use low-sulfur-fuel equipment and recycled material wherever possible.
With the changes, the transit center's revised budget comes to $785 million. Wheeler explained that the design changes do not affect the ultimate goal of making the station easier to navigate and access from street level. "It's up-to-date, it's modern, and it's comprehensive," he said.
As part of the community outreach initiative for the Fulton Street Transit Center, the MTA has launched a task force that downtown stakeholders are invited to join. The task force's next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, July 20 at 10 a.m. at MTA headquarters (2 Broadway at Bowling Green). To RSVP for the meeting or to be added to the mailing list, contact Community Relations Director Lois Tendler at (646) 252-2660.
That sh*t is wack....Hmmm...not sure whether its funny or annoying to see projects get scaled down like that and in the end not live up to the expectations that would have more than justified the inconveniences of moving everyone "in the way" out of the way.
In the end, it will be a brick fortress with a 2ft by 3ft, 3inch thick, opague plastic, permanently sealed skylight covered over by pigeon crap.
^LOL! Gee, and I thought I was cynical.
Of course the person who makes out the most in this is the MTA chairman, Mr. Kalikow, who owns 195 Broadway which is one of the closest properties not getting forced out. Not sure how the ethics board cleared this, but maybe some of these 120 business' that are being removed can get a good deal at 195 Broadway. Yeah right!
I am glad to see these businesses forced out. I work down the street from this site and walk by these disgusting businesses every day. They are remnants from NY's days in the toilet, as are the buildings that they occupy. NY needs to redevelop this prime real estate.
I didn't know this...but of course that's how these things play out!Originally Posted by Zoe
As to the ethics board: Kalikow and the gang probably talked it out over drinks at the Club and everyone agreed: "Where is there a problem here?"
Seemingly there is never a conflict of interest when the interest in question is to make certain that the big guys make lots of money...
Aint New York grand?!?!?
Lower Manhattan's Broadway canyon of is precious. There is nothing like it in the world. People travel form all over the world to experience it. Demolishing a whole block of it, in the style of a 1960's "redevelopment" project, to put up a pointless glass box, is just a crying shame. The MTA has made abundantly clear its inability to maintain the properties it already has. NYC's subway stations are, for the most part, filthy and shabby. There is no reason to believe it will do any better job maintaining this one. The stores on that stretch of Broadway may not be sufficiently upscale for some, but the New York process of gentrification will eventually address that. The MTA should drop the above-ground aspect of this project, and just fix the underground connections. The 120 small businesses, which have chosen to remain in Downtown rather than flee like many of the more moneyed interests, should be allowed to stay. It is a wrong thing that the MTA is doing.
There is a perception that people do not prefer to work downtown, and halting new development will only make this worse. The businesses that are lost there will be replaced by new ones or these 120 tenants will try the new hub.
BPC: That stretch of cheap stores and dilapidated buildings merits the wrecking ball.
I really have to disagree with BPC's assessment of the subway stations in NYC. Maintenance is becoming a bigger issue, but overall I think the MTA did a great job on some of it's latest hub projects like Atlantic Terminal, Stillwell Avenue and the continuing Times Square Project.
That stretch of stores doesn't harken back to anything significant in New York's past and the station needs to be redesigned to allow easy transfer as a hub station. The competing subways that created these separate stations and the mish mash of prison-like corridors is not only confusing - it is also intimidating. Fulton Street Station - not the Calavatra Station - is the major Downtown hub and i think the creation of a recognizable entry and station shows a stronger sense to public service than we've seen in years in Downtown, by the MTA. And, I think plans to downsize it are short-sighted, foolish and send the wrong message to both residents, businesses and developers.
What are these 120 businesses comprised of? Office tenants and retail are sure to be able to find new spaces downtown.
50 are shoe shines
50 are newstands
The rest I don't know.
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