59 St-Columbus Circle
Downtown Side
The Downtown 1 train side of the 59 Street-Columbus Circle tour begins at the extreme northern end of the platform where a few steps lead down to a small fare control area with three High Turnstiles, a MVM and two streetstairs along Broadway just beyond the NW corner with 60 Street. This exit is newly built as part of the recently completed reconstruction in the late-2000s.
Continuing a short way down the platform toward the middle, we reach the historic area, this is where the original 5 cars platformed on the opening day of the IRT. The historic section of the platform is particularly obvious with the trimline changing. The fare control area here is still in the original location, with the sailboat motif and green trimline, restored mosaic lines and a name tablet. Turnstiles lead to one of the 3 open token booths the station and two street stairs (before the renovations just one), up a median between the two directions of Broadway, just south of 60 Street. These are signed in the station as exiting to Columbus Circle. All of these staircases that lead directly to this platform are signed "Downtown 1, and A,B,C,D & Uptown 1 via platform." Continuing down the platform we reach the southern end where the connection is the A,B,C,D IND platforms beneath and what is basically an IND station entrance that will be covered in this section because it feels a bit more logical and is on nearly the same level as the 1 train platform.
From the 1 platform there is first a gradual non-Wheelchair accessible ramp that leads down directly to the fare control area at the 58 Street end of the station, next there is an elevator that connects at an intermediate landing to the IND Mezzanine area and a bottom landing to the downtown IND platform. Next is a quadruple wide (there 4 different sections of the staircase divided by three railings) staircase down to a small mezzanine above the IND platform has well as a staircase directly from the Downtown 1 train platform down to the downtown IND platform. This mezzanine has two staircases down to the downtown platform and two to the uptown platform along with another elevator connecting it to the uptown platform. A single staircase leads to the former middle exit platform and the new fenced off passageway along the middle of it allowing passengers to get too uptown 1 trains and not walking down either of the actual crowded IND platforms. At its southern end (and over the southern end of the IND platforms) it meets up with the ramp down from the downtown 1 platform to a wide fare control area, and an underground concourse that continues one block south beneath 8 Avenue to 57 Street.
From the turnstiles this concourse starts with a wide staircase and pair of escalators up to an exit beneath the Time Warner Center in a plaza just beneath it (there is no direct access to its indoor shopping mall), there is also a street elevator here with an unusual glass enclosure on the street since it is maintained by the Time Warner Center. There is another street stair from this concourse across to the NE corner of 58 Street and 8 Avenue.
The underground concourse continues one block south to 57 Street and the journey of this underground concourse is an example of how hard it is for the MTA to create active spaces with amenities, not just empty mezzanines. After the stations mid-2000s renovation, the areas along the former walls of the tunnel were turned into small rooms with curving Plexi-Glass walls along the still fairly wide-open part of the passageway, all covered in advertisements. These were designed to be retail spaces. The space contained, before renovations, an artist and students collaborative art project installed on the walls of the concourse, with a couple of stores including a barbershop just before the subway turnstiles. The original flowing glass walled storefronts were never used (except for some models for interactive ads, I remember one with clocks and models of runners as part of a sponsorship of the New York City Marathon). The concourse was closed again in 2015 and in 2016 reopened as Turnstile Underground Market with various small restaurants, kiosks and shops lining both sides of the corridor, bringing life into what was once just an underground concourse providing subway passengers wanting to get to 57 Street options out of the rain. Passengers using the concourse now must pass diners sitting at tables in what was once a drab IND mezzanine.
Turnstile Underground market leads to a central area beneath the intersection of 57 Street and 8 Avenue with the floor forming a compass, and street stairs up to all four corners. The one up to the NE corner is conventional. On the NE it is modern and set inside an existing building with large Private Property signs. The SW is also set inside an existing building with green text spelling Subway written in concrete where there is a tiny shopping arcade with a shoeshine and barber shop before the concourse is reached. The SW corner has two entrances one along 8 Avenue and one along 57 Street inside the Hearst Corporation on that corner (300 West 57 Street) that has ads for itself along the passageways that lead to that entrance.
Photo 1: June 10, 2008; 2 & 3: December 30, 2008; 4-50: June 11, 2011; 51-53: June 14, 2011; 54-58: October 31, 2012; 59-69: September 13, 2015; 70-73: May 15, 2016
Station Subway Lines (1989-2005)
