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.

mapLet’s start at Brookfield Place. The new Brookfield Place entry pavilion:

Brookfield Place entry pavilionAnd inside it, looking east. These pictures get bigger if you click on them, I should note.

inside the Brookfield Place entry pavilionLeaving 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.

Escalator to Brookfield Place2escalator back down to passagewayLooking back toward the Brookfield Place escalators.

escalators to Brookfield PlaceLooking back toward the entrance to the Brookfield Place escalators.

entering Brookfield Place from WTC passagewayHeading toward the World Trade Center area.

entrance from Brookfield escalator to WTC passagewayThis 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.

western part of WTC passagewayThe big moment is the high-ceilinged part of the passageway, with rib-like beams

WTC passageway heading eastThe ceiling. If anyone can tell me why certain light does this to my camera, please let me know.

passageway ceilingThe 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.

chris on thomas street She’s the worst:

annoying skateboard chickThe yellow floor means you’re entering the PATH station…

back at the PATH…where it gets very temporary looking, before you hit another bank of escalators (as well as stairways).

PATH area2

Update: Comments have been turned off due to spam. To have them turned back on, email tribecacitizen@gmail.com.

 

10 Comments

  1. Just wondering if this also connects to the E train on Church yet?

  2. @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.)

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. Really, “she’s the worst”? Well, I think you’re the worst.

  7. @Concerned Citizen: Yeah, me too. Maybe she and I can form a band. We can call ourselves the Worsts!

  8. 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!

  9. 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.

  10. @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.