OVERHAUL: MTA Seeking Contractor To Refurbish Notorious Chambers Street J/Z Station
Chambers of horrors, no more.
The MTA is preparing to finally refurbish the Chambers Street J/Z subway station, possibly the most-notorious example of the decades of disinvestment in the city’s transit system.
On Wednesday, the transit agency issued a call for contractors to compete to tackle the onerous job of bringing the dungeon-like station from its current state of disrepair into something that you could proudly show off to an out-of-towner. According to the vendor ad the contractor for the nine-figure renovation will be responsible for all sorts of work including, but not limited to:
- Replacing the stairs
- Replacing damaged finishes and tiles
- Fixing water leaks
- Adding new lighting
- Painting
- Building an entirely new ceiling
- Getting the station ready for new artwork
And lots of other stuff. It’s a big job, hence the projected cost of more than $100 million — funded thanks to congestion pricing.
Fixing the Chambers Street station will be more than just a simple contract. The contractors who will be hired will be beautifying a station that has been called the ugliest subway station in New York, had a star turn on Reddit’s Urban Hell page and is a enough of a known commodity that it can instantly be used a laugh line to start a Twitter thread titled “Thread of the most beautiful metro stations on Earth.”
Even the generally reserved contributors to Wikipedia found a way to put down the station, saying, “Sections of the original design, including the ceiling and walls, are heavily damaged or deteriorated” from water damage and mold.
The state of the Chambers Street station is especially striking, given that it sits below the David N. Dinkins Municipal Building, where so many city employees toil.
MTA spokesperson Aaron Donovan said that the agency hopes to award the contract for the repair work this year.
Clarification: An earlier version of this story had an accurate link to MTA’s call for contractors, but the MTA later took down that link. The link has been added back now that the MTA has posted the contractor document again. The accuracy of this report was never in question.
