LOWER MANHATTAN — New renderings offer a peek inside the future Fulton Street Transit Center.
The glistening $1.4 billion station, slated to open in June 2014, will feature glass tiles and reflective walls, suffused in natural sunlight that will filter down from a 53-foot skylight.
The renderings show straphangers gathering around a digital subway information kiosk in the center of the brand-new station, which will offer connections between 10 subway lines.
The station will have large LCD screens and scrolling messages to tell people about schedule changes and arriving trains.
The renderings also show a pedestrian passageway beneath Dey Street, opening in November, which will have a mirrored wall that will show hazy reflections of the shapes and colors of everyone who walks past it.
In addition to serving as a connection point for thousands of commuters each day, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority hopes the station will become a gathering space for Lower Manhattan's residents, tourists and office workers.
The glass-walled transit center and the adjacent historic Corbin Building will include about 70,000 square feet of shops, restaurants and office space, with some tables and bar seats overlooking Broadway and the rising World Trade Center towers.
"What we're trying to do is create a great public space," Uday Durg, a senior vice president at the MTA, said during a tour in December. "We want to make sure it's a positive attraction."
Parts of the new station have already begun opening as they are completed. The next part to open will be the renovated 4/5 platforms and a new Dey Street entrance in July, followed by the new Dey Street underpass and retail space in the Corbin Building in the late fall.
Recent construction progress on the center includes the installation of dozens of "parasols," or reflective pieces inside the domed skylight, which will focus sunlight down into the center.
