The WTC Transit Hub is Open…Sort Of
As they do from time to time, the New York Times stumbled upon a perfect descriptive phrase for the opening of the WTC transportation hub: “Glorious Boondoggle”. It encompasses the new transportation hub, which “opened” this past Thursday.
However, also in NYT fashion, the phrase doesn’t mean exactly what they think it does. They meant “failure on an epic scale”, when in reality the new station fails and soars in equal measure, occupying both aspects of the title. The hub is both a glorious monument to the city and a devastating and wasteful boondoggle.
First, a little history. The World Trade Center, before the 9/11 attacks, was served by four subway lines the 1,R,E, and the PATH trains. When the Twin Towers collapsed the PATH station and the Cortland St. 1 station were both destroyed, and the R and E stations were damaged.
As part of the reconstruction of the WTC site, the redevelopers envisioned a single transportation hub, fully integrated with the WTC complex, to connect the disparate train lines and provide easier access to the towers above. Designing this grand undertaking would be a near impossible task that required constructing around the new towers, the museum and memorial, and still-active train lines. So experienced station designer (and world class architect) Santiago Calatrava was brought in.
Calatrava had already made a name for himself as a famous architect in Europe when he designed the Milwaukee Art Museum in 2001. Soon his unique, modernist style became very popular in the U.S.. However, after a series of over-budget and past-due contracts, as well as extremely outlandish projects, he began to fall out of favor, especially in his home country of Spain.
Despite these warnings, the Port Authority contracted Calatrava to design the new station complex in 2004. His initial design was met with a solid reception, and so the PA moved forward with construction, which was slated to be completed between 2006 to 2008. It obviously wasn’t, and this is how we get to the boondoggle.
The WTC transit hub is a certifiable boondoggle. This comes from two sources familiar to both Calatrava (and New York): cost overruns and delays. The hub has come in 10 years late and $2 billion over budget. Much of this can be blamed on Calavatra’s design, or his strange decisionmaking.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that complex designs cost more money. Calavatra’s hub is littered with ornamentation, particularly in the form of the hundreds of architectural ribs. Adding to the initially huge cost was Calavatra’s strange insistence on custom-made Italian steel beams and European white marble, materials that could have been sourced from the U.S. for less.
The local governing bodies also deserve some of the blame. The MTA’s refusal to temporarily shut down the 1 train forced work on the station to happen around one of the busiest train lines in the city, which needed to be suspended from a 200-foot columnless bridge. The PA themselves wasted about a billion dollars by ignoring potential cost savings and overspending on maintenance and management. Even the weather conspired against the project. Sandy inundated the site in 2011, pushing back construction by months, and a leaky roof in 2015 pushed the final opening date to 2016.
So finally, after a dozen years and four billion dollars, the station “opened.” But not really. Less that 10% of the hub is actually open. The only parts we can use are the PATH concourse and platforms (already open for some time), ⅔ of the Oculus, the stegosauroid crown of the station, and the hallways passing through eventually opening retail space. That’s it. The shops, the connections to the 1, R, and E trains and many of the passages and entrances are yet to be completed. Some elements will open up this spring, while others won’t be ready until 2018…
So, is the station as it stands today (and as it will stand in 2018) worth it? Absolutely.
The WTC transit hub is glorious. It is an architectural marvel. The sheer complexity of what has been pulled off could fill a textbook. The hub itself is just stunning. With its levithan ribs, white marble and great airy spaces, it is unlike anything else in the city. The station is easy to navigate, and will be easier still when all its components are opened. The retail space is already booked up by a number of high-profile stores, which will be moving in within a few months.
The station also greatly improves transit and transport in the upper financial district. It will soon be possible to walk from Brookfield Place in the west side to Fulton Center in the east side—all underground. By the end of construction in 2018, 12 subway lines, the PATH and a number of ferries will all be united.
This is the biggest transportation shakeup in New York since the 1950s. Most importantly, the WTC transit hub shows the power of infrastructure, particularly rail infrastructure. As we all know, the past few decades have not been the greatest for our trains. The hub signals the reversal of that trend, both in New York and, hopefully, across the country. I think that’s worthwhile.