The New Fulton Street Transit Center Will Be Daylit By a Soaring Conical Oculus

The gorgeous new metal and glass<a href="http://www.mta.info/capconstr/fstc/" target="_blank"> Fulton Street Transit Center</a> that began construction in 2005 is starting to take shape. The $1.4 billion project was temporarily derailed due to budget cuts, but for the last year and a half, construction has stayed on track thanks to $424 million in stimulus funding from the federal government. The structure, which is being built by <a href="http://grimshaw-architects.com/project/fulton-street-transit-centre/" target="_blank">Grimshaw Architects</a>, will be largely daylit from a <a href="http://inhabitat.com/solar-decathlon-team-chinas-y-container-upcycles-shipping-containers/" target="_blank">giant oculus</a> that will filter natural light into the three floors below it.

The four storey structure will glitter like a jewel in lower Manhattan, reflecting myriads of sunlight in its glass and steel façade. Perched on the corner of Broadway and Fulton Street, the 26,000 square foot space will house a shopping center of retail stores and restaurants above 12 subway lines and the <a href="http://www.panynj.gov/path/wtc-station.html" target="_blank">World Trade Center PATH station</a>.

"The atrium design is topped by a glass oculus and defined by a hyperbolic parabaloid cable net, stretched within a cone, developed in partnership with artist James Carpenter," says <a href="http://grimshaw-architects.com/project/fulton-street-transit-centre/" target="_blank">Grimshaw Architects</a>. "This cable net supports an inner skin of filigree metal reflector panels, optimised to capture and distribute year round daylight to the deepest levels of the transit centre."

It will also connect the historic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corbin_Building" target="_blank">Corbin building</a> to the underground. Built in 1889, the building project included renovating the "proto-skyscraper" to include ground level and subterranean spaces for retail and subway access and facilities.

The new hub will also connect the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dey_Street_Passageway" target="_blank">Dey Street Pedestrian Concourse</a> that runs from Broadway to Church Street. The Dey passage will be capped by a headhouse on the corner of Broadway and Dey, as part of the overall project.

Some criticize the MTA for spending $1.4 billion on a project that will only connect subway lines and the New Jersey Path train, rather than regional or light rail lines. But the area is not only heavily used by New Yorkers working on Wall Street and in the Financial District, but it is a highly trafficked area by tourists who come to see the historic sites of Lower Manhattan.

The project is slated to be complete in mid-2014, with sections opening for public use in intervals before.