Although it may seem like the debate over NYC’s $3.9 billion World Trade Center Transportation Hub may never end, it looks like the majestic Oculus structure itself is finally nearing completion – sort of. According to the NY Times, a section of famed architect Santiago Calatrava‘s highly controversial Oculus hub is set to open in June, allowing pedestrian traffic to flow through the passageway connecting PATH train platforms to new entrances at Vesey and Liberty Streets.
The Oculus’s 600-foot-long underground walkway on WTC West Concourse linking the World Trade Center with Brookfield Place opened almost two years ago, but progress on Calatrava’s ambitious project has continued to be slow. With a new section set to open next month, the large and luminous space will now offer improved access and flow for the clusters of pedestrian traffic that have plagued the area around the transportation hub since construction began.
Once the north-south passageway between Vesey and Liberty Streets opens, it will improve “access and transportation connections for the residents, workers and visitors to Lower Manhattan,” according to Patrick J. Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
In addition to the opening of the new section, the Port Authority has plans to open the second of four white marble-floored PATH platforms also designed by Calatrava in collaboration with the Downtown Design Partnership.
Via NY Times
Lead image by Mike Chino for Inhabitat
