MTA Holiday Presents: Completes Nearly $500M in Renovations at E. 68th St. and W. 14th St. Subway Stations

While Subway riding Holiday shoppers, visitors and other travelers were riding through Manhattan in recent days, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) completed work on the E. 68th Street-Hunter College 6 train station and the West 14th Street complex for the F,L,M,1,2 and 3 trains at both the 6th and 7th Avenue stations. New artwork, elevators and safety improvements will make trips less stressful.

Upgrades at the W. 14th Street Stations

The stations for 14th Street subway lines at 6th and 7th Avenues now have improved accessibility for all. Work crews over the last 22 months repaired concrete, steel and paint defects, and refinished platforms featuring ADA boarding areas. The entire complex has 25 new staircases and 39 renovated staircases, as well as five platform upgrades, which includes new tactile warning strips and ADA boarding areas. As of December 19, four new elevators now provide access to the platforms at the 14 St F, M and L station and the 1 2 and 3 platforms at 7th Avenue, making the 14 St station complex accessible, manageable for the disabled, as well as suitcase-laden travelers, and people with strollers. Additionally, the 7th Avenue station has an enlarged mezzanine with new lighting and tiles.

Weekday usage for both the 6th and 7th Avenue stations is upwards of 130,000 customers on a weekday. They serve six lines connecting four boroughs, as well as two PATH train lines to Hudson County, NJ.

The $300 million megaproject to make ADA accessible upgrades to this station included $247 million in federal funds. Approximately 23.5 percent of the project budget has been awarded to Disadvantaged Business Enterprise firms.

Last month, as a sneak peak, the MTA opened two elevators providing access to the street level and uptown level at the 14 7th Avenue station. Earlier this year, the MTA had opened three new elevators providing access from the street to the 6 Ave L platform and the uptown F and M platform. After a few mechanical hiccups at the beginning, currently all elevators are working normally,

“In addition to accessibility upgrades, customers at 14 St can look forward to a brighter, cleaner and safer station,” said NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow.

Some Manhattanites think the subways are for the birds; Brooklyn-based artist Fred Tomaselli took them at their word at 14th Street.

The Station complex features new artwork by Tomaselli, a suite of six mosaics, “Wild Things” was commissioned by MTA Arts & Design, and can be found along the passageway to 6th Avenue, and to the Uptown and Downtown trains at 14th Street and Seventh Avenue. The artist focused on birds that also call New York their home year-round. The glass mosaics employ a variety of fabrication techniques to capture the artist’s original collaged and painted images. The new artwork, with additional sections inside the 14 St-6 Av station, adds more than 680 square feet of mosaic throughout the complex.

Noted NYS Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal: “While the vast majority of New York’s 472 subway stations remain inaccessible, today’s announcement proves that we are well on our way to changing that. I am grateful to the disability advocates who made the case for accessibility at 14 St and to the MTA for heeding their call.”

And at 68th Street....

The following day, it was 68th and Lexington Avenue’s turn.

The station for Hunter College in Manhattan became accessible, coincidently the 100th station on the subway system to do that ( there are 472 in total in the system). Now, there are three new elevators, upgraded platforms and an extended mezzanine, new entrances, reconstructed stairs and better signage for its 20,000 daily riders,

MTA Chief Accessibility Officer Quemuel Arroyo noted: “With this station opening we finish the 100-station commitment from the Key Station Program and look ahead towards a brighter future with subway accessibility systemwide.”

This project offers a new street-to-mezzanine elevator and two new mezzanine-to-platform elevators, six new stairways, and nine refurbished stairways; refinished platforms feature ADA boarding areas. Safety enhancements made in the station, include a new fire alarm system, CCTV cameras and upgraded communications systems, lighting, and customer information.

The $177 million project includes $140 million in federal funds. Approximately 22.6 percent of the project budget has been awarded to Disadvantage Business Enterprise firms.

The 68 St-Hunter College station also features new artwork in mosaic by artist Lisa Corinne Davis, a graduate and professor of art at Hunter College. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design, the artwork abstractly charts the congregation of the racial, cultural, and economic diversity in this flourishing Upper East Side neighborhood. The artwork is located on a wall in the new mezzanine accessible by new stairs and elevators and two walls flanking the seating areas in the paid side of the station. The murals suggest map, geographic mobility, or the intersections of personal narratives that occur within the station.

“A transit system that serves all New Yorkers is one that is accessible to all New Yorkers,” said Council Member Keith Powers. “The new elevators at the 68 St-Hunter College Station are a step forward in increasing accessibility for the entire system, and all transit riders will benefit from the upgrades inside the station as well.”

As Manhattanites greet 2025, easier transit for users of these stations will make life a little easier.