The transportation committee of Community Board 7 last night passed a resolution endorsing a plan by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to dramatically alter the 100-year-old 96th Street station of the IRT subway on Broadway.
The $80 million plan would eliminate sidewalk entrances to the subway at 96th Street and erect a new ¿station house¿ in the middle of Broadway between 96th and 95th Streets. The station house would be close to 95th Street and would include two elevators and four stairways to the subway platforms. It is one of 100 stations of the city¿s 467 stations that the city has agreed to provide with disabled access.
Recently, the MTA redid the crowded express subway station at 72nd Street and Broadway and Andrew Albert, co-chairman of the transportation committee, remarked that the board was lucky to get another major station renovation.
The proposed new station house will be quite different from the handsome Post-Modern design at 72nd Street. The design by Urbahn Associates Inc., and Daniel Frankfurt PC calls for an arched building, somewhat reminiscent of some of the famous designs of Salvador Calatrava.
A spokesman for Daniel Frankfurt engineering firm told the committee that the proposal will reduce from 65 to 32 the number of steps that non-disabled subway riders will have to make each trip at the station. At present, access to the express platform at 96th Street must be made by descending the sidewalk entrances to the local platforms and descending beneath them and walking to the middle of the street and ascending another set of stairs to reach the express platform. The new stairways and elevators will direct access the express platform. The spokesman also said that the redesigned mall with the new station house would be surrounded by a wall that would prevent mid-block jaywalking.
Some members of the public at the meeting expressed concerns about increased pedestrian traffic from new high-rise construction in the area.
The plan would reduce the width of the sidewalks by as much as 9 feet on either side of the avenue to provide ¿left turning¿ lanes to speed the flow of north-south traffic.
The resolution specifically agreed to provisions in the proposal to make adjustments to the mall on Broadway between 94th and 97th Streets. The resolution also specifically did not approve plans in the proposals to permit a Parks Department concession stand.
The committee spent almost two-and-half hours debating the merits of the proposal with most of its attention focused on pedestrian safety and parking spaces.
Several members of the public asked a spokesperson for the city¿s Department of Transportation about the possibility of changing traffic signals to the count-down signals used in Washington, D.C., but the spokesperson said that was a ¿different philosophy,¿ much to the chagrin of most of the committee.
A spokesperson for the MTA told the committee that it hopes to bid the project out to bid by the end of the year and the 36-month construction would start early next year.
The station, which is in the top 5 percent of most used in the city, now gets about 37,000 entries a day.
A spokesman for the Broadway Mall Association asked the committee to include a provision in its resolution requesting the MTA to pay the association for its recent costs in beautifying the mall it is replacing, which, he said, ¿was the most beautiful on Broadway.¿ The committee declined his request.
The $80 million plan would eliminate sidewalk entrances to the subway at 96th Street and erect a new ¿station house¿ in the middle of Broadway between 96th and 95th Streets. The station house would be close to 95th Street and would include two elevators and four stairways to the subway platforms. It is one of 100 stations of the city¿s 467 stations that the city has agreed to provide with disabled access.
Recently, the MTA redid the crowded express subway station at 72nd Street and Broadway and Andrew Albert, co-chairman of the transportation committee, remarked that the board was lucky to get another major station renovation.
The proposed new station house will be quite different from the handsome Post-Modern design at 72nd Street. The design by Urbahn Associates Inc., and Daniel Frankfurt PC calls for an arched building, somewhat reminiscent of some of the famous designs of Salvador Calatrava.
A spokesman for Daniel Frankfurt engineering firm told the committee that the proposal will reduce from 65 to 32 the number of steps that non-disabled subway riders will have to make each trip at the station. At present, access to the express platform at 96th Street must be made by descending the sidewalk entrances to the local platforms and descending beneath them and walking to the middle of the street and ascending another set of stairs to reach the express platform. The new stairways and elevators will direct access the express platform. The spokesman also said that the redesigned mall with the new station house would be surrounded by a wall that would prevent mid-block jaywalking.
Some members of the public at the meeting expressed concerns about increased pedestrian traffic from new high-rise construction in the area.
The plan would reduce the width of the sidewalks by as much as 9 feet on either side of the avenue to provide ¿left turning¿ lanes to speed the flow of north-south traffic.
The resolution specifically agreed to provisions in the proposal to make adjustments to the mall on Broadway between 94th and 97th Streets. The resolution also specifically did not approve plans in the proposals to permit a Parks Department concession stand.
The committee spent almost two-and-half hours debating the merits of the proposal with most of its attention focused on pedestrian safety and parking spaces.
Several members of the public asked a spokesperson for the city¿s Department of Transportation about the possibility of changing traffic signals to the count-down signals used in Washington, D.C., but the spokesperson said that was a ¿different philosophy,¿ much to the chagrin of most of the committee.
A spokesperson for the MTA told the committee that it hopes to bid the project out to bid by the end of the year and the 36-month construction would start early next year.
The station, which is in the top 5 percent of most used in the city, now gets about 37,000 entries a day.
A spokesman for the Broadway Mall Association asked the committee to include a provision in its resolution requesting the MTA to pay the association for its recent costs in beautifying the mall it is replacing, which, he said, ¿was the most beautiful on Broadway.¿ The committee declined his request.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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