On March 3, NY opened the most expensive train station in the world, on the site of the World Trade Centre destroyed 14 years ago in the 9/11 attacks. The Port Authority of NY and New Jersey says riders will be able to access a new entrance at Liberty and Church streets.
Advertisement
Intially budgeted at $2 billion, it has spiraled to $3.85 billion according to a spokesperson in Calatrava’s office, which would make it the most expensive station in the world.
“This is a gift to New Yorkers from our hearts”, Calatrava said from inside the winged, two-level structure that’s still not 100% done.
The building has become a major source of controversy – for its daring aesthetic, for spiraling drastically off budget and for closing 7 years behind schedule. Looking at it from a distance, the attractive structure looks like a huge bird spreading out its wings to fly up to the sky. The space measures 107 metres long by 35 metres at its widest point.
Thursday was only a partial opening – with a giant shopping and restaurant plaza not due to be up and running until August.
The new Santiago Calatrava-designed transit center is not very practical, grossly overpriced, and poorly suited to its surroundings, wrote Michael Kimmelman, the New York Times’ architecture critic, in a column. The hub will connect Port Authority Trans-Hudson trains to New Jersey with 11 New York City subway lines and ferry service.
Advertisement
The newly built World Trade Center Transportation Hub, created to resemble a dove but tasked with the job of a phoenix, opens this week, almost 15 years after the September 11 attacks left Lower Manhattan in ashes.
