Station: Bleecker Street (IRT East Side Line)
From nycsubway.org
IRT East Side Line at Bleecker Street. Photo by: David Sagarin, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Engineering Record, August 1978.
| IRT East Side Line |
Overview
Opened: 10/27/1904
Transfer here to: IND 6th Avenue Line
Bleecker Street station features typical IRT mosaics with two styles of small "Bleecker Street" mosaics. The fare control is at platform level. Until the full transfer to the IND 6th Avenue Line (at Broadway/Lafayette Street) opened in 2012, there was a very large offset between the platforms, and there was no crossover or crossunder.
MTA New York City Transit hired a joint venture of Weidlinger Associates and Lee Harris Pomeroy Architects to design an ADA compliant, complete bidirectional transfer facility. Beginning in 2007, following the joint venture's engineering plans, the contractor, M.A. Angeliades, extended the uptown IRT platform 300 feet to align it with the IND station, and constructed a central stairwell and elevator shafts to connect the IRT platform to the IND platforms beneath it. Angeliades added elevators to provide access to Crosby and Houston Streets and an entrance at Mulberry Street.
A new artwork entitled Hive, by artist Leo Villareal, is over the staircase leading to the uptown IRT platform. According to the blog at New York Writes Itself the artwork was inspired by John Conway's famous mathematical formula "Life". The LED lighting are programmed to flash with different speeds and intensity depending on how busy the station is. According to Sandra Bloodworth, the director of MTA Arts for Transit, the installation evokes not only the subway system's "movement and transportation, but also that process of life."
The reconstructed and historically landmarked station is also graced with terra cotta finishes. The budget for creating the new transfer grew from $91 million to $135 million, in part because of increases in construction costs, and in part because the MTA learned it would have to relocate a water main at Houston Street and shore up an adjacent unstable building whose owners could not pay for repairs. The completion target of 2010 was pushed back repeatedly; the MTA finally confirmed that the transfer would be open in August 2012.
Reconstruction of the station included repairs to all systems, reconstruction of control areas, and relocation of major buried utilities. Extension of the IRT uptown platform involved replacing the tunnel wall; constructing a new platform, roof, and tunnel duct manhole; and re-supporting the tunnel roof on the new platform roof. Excavation was necessary along an existing IRT tunnel box structure adjacent to an existing six-story building, garage, and giant billboard, which had foundations that had to be deepened and stabilized.
Artwork
Hive, Leo Villareal, 2012. "Kinetic" lighting installation in the transfer mezzanine on the uptown side.
Photo Gallery
 Image 22172 (100k, 832x698) Photo by: David of Broadway Location: Bleecker Street |
 Image 49504 (259k, 1044x788) Photo by: Richard Panse Location: Bleecker Street |
 Image 77379 (184k, 1044x689) Photo by: David M. Kelly Location: Bleecker Street |
 Image 78773 (197k, 1044x791) Photo by: Roberto C. Tobar Location: Bleecker Street |
 Image 94736 (198k, 930x618) Photo by: Peter Ehrlich Location: Bleecker Street |
 Image 94746 (216k, 930x606) Photo by: Peter Ehrlich Location: Bleecker Street |
 Image 127069 (132k, 768x1024) Photo by: Robbie Rosenfeld Location: Bleecker Street |
 Image 130056 (270k, 1044x788) Photo by: Roberto C. Tobar Location: Bleecker Street |
 Image 133798 (95k, 1024x768) Photo by: Robbie Rosenfeld Location: Bleecker Street |
 Image 133845 (294k, 1024x687) Photo by: Wilfredo Castillo Location: Bleecker Street |
 Image 136172 (81k, 1024x768) Photo by: Robbie Rosenfeld Location: Bleecker Street |
 Image 136271 (116k, 1024x768) Photo by: Robbie Rosenfeld Location: Bleecker Street |
 Image 136893 (91k, 1024x768) Photo by: Robbie Rosenfeld Location: Bleecker Street |
 Image 137135 (305k, 1024x687) Photo by: Wilfredo Castillo Location: Bleecker Street |
 Image 137270 (313k, 1024x680) Photo by: John Dooley Location: Bleecker Street |