Plans for the new Fulton Street Transit Center include a large glass cone-shaped ceiling

A look at plans for the new Fulton Street Transit Center main entrance reveals a lofty, glass-over-steel cone that will open the station to day, inviting street light as far down as the 4/5 train platform. The design is a far cry from the dim, crowded station that currently serves nearly 300,000 riders a day with its 10 subway lines on five scattered platforms.

The new layout is the product of many months of research, community outreach, and exhaustive engineering strategies by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) design team, led by international architecture firm Grimshaw. It was unveiled yesterday as the MTA's top choice out of several similar blueprints presented in the draft environmental impact statement (EIS).

"We want this structure to be iconic," said Andrew Whalley, the project's lead designer at Grimshaw, who presented the station's layout to the press and public at the Center for Architecture. Whalley explained that the goal of the $750 million design is to create a structure that is recognizable from both the interior and exterior -- and to that end, use of light is key. "Light helps you way-find. It helps you connect to the city," Whalley explained.

The building may also include retail shops and other amenities

Elsewhere, the new design sorts out the maze of ramps and passageways within the station itself and establishes a walkway under Dey Street. The much-anticipated underground link will connect Fulton Center trains with the R/W line at Cortlandt Street and the World Trade Center transportation hub -- home to the PATH and, eventually, a direct rail line to regional airports. The Dey Street walkway will have its own recognizable glass-and-steel entrance along Broadway.

Whalley noted that the plan answers the Fulton Street station's top priorities -- ease of movement and reduced travel time -- by "rationalizing" the entire complex and using consistencies in design, such as easy-to-understand signage and both natural and artificial light.

Designers plan to restore the original Fulton Street station's mosaics and terra cotta tile work

Perhaps more important for commuters, the design opens up corridors between subway lines that will eliminate platform crowding (particularly along the 4/5 line) and, as a result, reduce train congestion.

Most pleasing to those Lower Manhattanites most proud of the area's history may be the designers' crafty incorporation of the 115-year-old Corbin Building, which sits at the northeast corner of Broadway and John Street and will share the block with the station's towering main entrance. In the lead plan, the nine-story Corbin Building will be fully refurbished, with its ground and lower levels transformed into part of the new station's entryway.

Designers also plan to restore the original Fulton Street station's mosaics and terra cotta tile work along the 4/5 line, again carefully reserving a place for century-old craftsmanship within the contemporary design.

The new transit center will service 10 subway lines

The station's proposed designs are now officially open for discussion, with a public hearing on the draft EIS set for June 8. If the project's timing stays on schedule, start of construction on the new station could begin as soon as late 2004, with the station's grand opening in 2007.

"We want this to be a destination," said Mysore Nagaraja, P.E., president of MTA Capital Construction. "After 2007 people are going to be saying, 'Meet me at the Fulton Transit Center.'"

To view video animations of the Fulton Street Transit Center's interior and exterior, as well as its Lexington Avenue Line Platform, Transfer Concourse Level and Dey Street Passageway, click here to access the MTA's design gallery.

For more information visit www.mta.info/capconstr/fstc/.

* All Images are courtesy of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority