Fulton Center To Open Next Month

After years of delay, the Grand Central of downtown will open to the public on Monday, Nov 10.

The transit center, which sits at the corner of Broadway and Fulton Street, will be lower Manhattan's largest transit hub. It was built to facilitate and simplify transfers between the tangle of nine separate subway lines running through the area. It will have air conditioning, open mezzanine space, digital signs displaying train information, and 65,000 square feet of retail.

It also has something else: sitting atop the building is a net of light-reflecting aluminum and stainless steel.

Known as "Sky Reflector Net," the installation — also known as the oculus — is the centerpiece of the new building and will bounce light throughout the structure.

The Fulton Center building cost $224 million. The entire cost of the Fulton Center overhaul, including new passageways between subway lines and station rehabilitations, is $1.4 billion.

This project is the first of several MTA megaprojects currently underway. The next to start serving passengers will be the #7 extension, which is expected to be completed early next year.