Columbia University first requested the demolition of the station's original entrance in Broadway's median in 1954, ahead of the Columbia University Bicentennial. The university brought up the issue again at a meeting of the New York City Board of Estimate in 1963, after a student was killed while crossing the street. The kiosk was seen as a safety hazard, with two deaths and several accidents occurring at the kiosk from 1962 to 1964. Sixty-eight hundred students and faculty members signed a petition to remove the kiosk in February 1964. On March 13, 1964, the New York City Board of Estimate voted to allocate $600,000 () to demolish the entrance and replace it with two new sidewalk entrances as part of the 1964–1965 City budget. The New York City Department of Highways had requested that funds be allocated to this project at the request of Columbia University. The New York City Transit Authority had not yet drawn up plans for the project. Bids for the kiosk's demolition were initially scheduled to be solicited in July 1964. That October, a NYCTA spokesperson announced that the demolition of the entrance would be delayed until the following spring. Work on the project had been expected to commence in December 1964. The NYCTA was expected to complete the design of the project in early 1965, after which the project could be put out for bids.