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First Look Inside the New WTC/Brookfield Place Passageway
The passageway between the World Trade Center PATH station and Brookfield Place opened today. I didn’t get invited to the ceremony, so all I know is what I saw.
This is going to be sort of weird, because I took some pix on the way to François Payard Bakery and some on the way back—so I’ll run them in order of east to west, but much of the time the shot is of the reverse direction. Here’s a map to give you an overview of what’s the passageway does.
Let’s start at Brookfield Place. The new Brookfield Place entry pavilion:
And inside it, looking east. These pictures get bigger if you click on them, I should note.
Leaving Brookfield Place, there are six (?) escalators, two elevators (but I think only one was in service), and, to my dismay, no stairs. Personally, I prefer stairs to vertiginous escalators. The photo directly below is actually looking back up toward Brookfield Place.
Looking back toward the Brookfield Place escalators.
Looking back toward the entrance to the Brookfield Place escalators.
Heading toward the World Trade Center area.
This is when it starts to get groovy. The light did funky things to my camera—as you’ll soon see—but in real life, the effect is very white. If the floors and walls aren’t marble, they’re marble-ish—and heaven only knows what the twice-daily commuter stampede will do to them.
The big moment is the high-ceilinged part of the passageway, with rib-like beams
The ceiling. If anyone can tell me why certain light does this to my camera, please let me know.
The walls are lined with an up-with-Downtown ad campaign. I have to imagine that seeing these people twice a day, five days a week, would make one hate them.
She’s the worst:
The yellow floor means you’re entering the PATH station…
…where it gets very temporary looking, before you hit another bank of escalators (as well as stairways).
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Just wondering if this also connects to the E train on Church yet?
@TribecaMom: No clue. What’s new is the connection west, so I doubt it. (To be honest, I haven’t spent much time in the PATH station, so I have no idea how/where the E relates to the PATH station.)
No connection to the E train yet. The big photos are where the retail will be going (I chatted with one of the guards about it).
It reminded me of a sci-fi movie from long ago–THX-1138?
There is a lot of noise going on in the area that’s boarded off from the staircase. I’m convinced they’re removing most of it. Sounds like sawing into the marble.
No connection to the E yet, though the E is less than a block from the PATH elevators. Ultimately it will connect all the way to the Fulton Center underground, though. I assume the second phase won’t open until the Calatrava-bird does, though.
Different light sources are different color temperatures. Our eyes adjust pretty well, and most digital cameras also can adjust. Without seeing the type of lighting there, my guess is that the camera is seeing more than one type & trying to correct for one it throws the color of the other off? Will have to check it out & report back.
THX-1138 was primarily shot in the San Francisco BART tunnels before the train service started. One scene the camera was turned 90˚ to further abstract the location.
Really, “she’s the worst”? Well, I think you’re the worst.
@Concerned Citizen: Yeah, me too. Maybe she and I can form a band. We can call ourselves the Worsts!
I assume there are fluorescent lights up there, they can cause some funky things like you’re seeing in your camera, although I usually find that florescent cause waves of yellow lines not just an all yellow image, but still, that’s my guess. You can adjust the white balance in post to set it correctly if you shoot in RAW.
Thanks for the photos!
If you get a chance, you might take a photo of the location at street level at the other end of the passageway. On Thursday I asked a cop where it was, and he didn’t know. Thanks for the report.
@Robert: It’s in the PATH station at the end of W. Broadway. You go inside then down (the only option), and it’s dead ahead.