After Years of Neglect, Planned Facelift for Chambers St. Station Is Still 2+ Years Away
The 111-year old station at Chambers St. was once the gleaming pride of the subway system, with towering ceilings and architectural flourishes. In recent decades, it has fallen into disrepair. The MTA is pledging to rejuvenate it as part of a two-station $100 million project, but it is still several years away from reality.
These may be the first sprouts of a planned overhaul for the rundown Chambers St. station which now serves only the J and Z lines in downtown Manhattan.
The MTA is seeking contractors to refurbish both the Chambers St. station and another one uptown at 190th St. as part of a $100 million overhaul.
At one point, up to five lines used the cavernous Chambers St. station which in its glory days was an architectural wonder that earned it a spot on the National Registry of Historical Places.
Even in its current run down state amid broken tiles, peeling paint and graffiti, the Chambers St station still stands out for its majestic ceilings which are double the height of any normal subway station; and its extra wide platforms, which were originally designed to serve five lines. Only two of the five are still in use today but the platform is 120 feet wide, twice the width of a normal express station.
As a part of the then-Brooklyn Rapid Transit, the Chambers Street station first opened on August 4, 1913 for trains over the Williamsburg Bridge, with final completion on September 14, 1914. It was built to be a component of a project to connect the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges, a temporary terminal to subsume elevated trains that used the Brooklyn Bridge, near City Hall and what was to become the Municipal Building.
With the optimism that came into vogue with the new, just-built subway lines in the early 1900s, detailed decorative tiles were placed at appropriate intervals in between the normal subway tiles lining the walls. Some noted the Brooklyn Bridge, others, Chambers Street in sans-serif, denoting the importance of the station.
In 1931, the southward Nassau Street tunnel was finished, and the grand space became another station on the way to the new terminal at Broad Street, in the financial district. Three of its five Chambers Street platforms closed permanently, leaving the current two, one for Broad Street trains, the other for Brooklyn and Queens trains.
Currently, Chambers Street serves the J line 24/7 and six rush hour Z line trains inbound in the morning and outbound in the evening. There have been a few renovations since 1931, notably the westernmost unused platform was tiled over in 1962, and upgrades brought the station up to ADA compliance, with elevators serving the working two platforms at the south end only.
Today, tiles are chipped, missing, or hidden from view by partitions. Paint, notably above the tracks is peeling. Grime abounds in certain areas, notably in the tiled columns that reach up to the ceiling. Add the graffiti and garbage strewn on the unused center platform are a visual stew of indigestion.
Amidst all the this, on the northern end mezzanine of the station, which you reach climbing up or down stairs at that end, a construction office is there. Straus News learned its purpose; an MTA spokesperson divulged the work currently happening there is part of upgrades happening to the employee facilities, not connected to planned upgrades.
Help is on the way, sort of. Last July, the MTA’s Construction and Development Company issued a Request for Proposal to correct Chamber Street’s deficiencies, in concert with the 190th Street Station on the A Line, which will complete historical sensitive repair and replacement or renovation work, replacement of station stairs, installation of new artwork, and constructing new track walls at the Chambers Street Station
Also covered? The design and construction of new concrete topping slabs in public areas, new platform edges and toppings with ADA boarding areas; and replacement or redesign of stairs & doors. The proposed renovations will also include the removal and replacement of all damaged Statiin finishes, and the restoration of historic station finishes and elements.
Along with support structural repairs, some non-public spaces will also be repaired, along with one track fully replaced. At Chambers Street, only two of the four existing tracks are used on a regular basis. On the easternmost side, a new track wall will be built and constructed. The current one has much of its tile work portioned and covered.
While no contractors has been named yet, once the $100 million project for both Chambers and 190th Street stations have one, time to finish the work should be about two years; when that time comes, instead of current grit will come a renewed glory, closer to Chambers Street’s early 1900’s opening.