It is located at Lexington Avenue between 59th and 60th Streets, on the border of Midtown and the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

[13][14] Originally, the commission had also assigned the operation of the Lexington Avenue Line in Manhattan to the BRT, as the IRT had withdrawn from negotiations over the proposed tri-borough system.

The Lexington Avenue Line was to connect with the IRT's existing subway north of Grand Central–42nd Street.

[22][23] Among the contracts awarded to the Bradley Construction Company was that for section 8 of the Lexington Avenue Line, which extended from 53rd to 67th Street.

However, the Public Service Commission's chief engineer Alfred Craven rejected the proposal in August 1914, saying it would be too expensive to construct express platforms at the station.

[36][37] In July 1915, the Public Service Commission received the rights to build a subway entrance for the IRT station at Lexington Avenue and 59th Street within the Bloomingdale's flagship store.

[38] Although the subway remained unopened, real-estate prices around Lexington Avenue and 59th Street had begun to increase by 1916.

[44] In the report that had been submitted to the Board of Estimate in June 1911, the BRT was to construct a line traveling east under 59th Street before ascending onto the Queensboro Bridge.

[45] The original plan there was to build a pair of single-track tunnels under 59th and 60th Streets, rising onto the bridge to Queens, with stations at Fifth and Lexington Avenues.

[46][47] Just east of the Lexington Avenue station, the line would have ascended at a 5.8 percent grade to reach the bridge.

[61][62] An entrance leading from the BMT station to the Bloomingdale's store opened on the same day that the line was extended to Queens.

[72][73] A transfer passageway between the BMT and IRT stations were placed inside fare control on July 1, 1948.

[76] Later that year, an additional subway entrance was proposed as part of the construction of a building on the southeastern corner of Lexington Avenue and 59th Street.

[84][88] In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the NYCTA undertook a $138 million (equivalent to $1.44 billion in 2023) modernization project for the Lexington Avenue Line.

[91] Work was complicated by the fact that there were two underground streams at 58th and 59th Streets, requiring workers to install waterproofing around the station.

[93] The completion of the express station, among other factors, resulted in increased profits and patronage for businesses near the intersection of 59th Street and Lexington Avenue.

[99] By 1970, the 59th Street station on the Lexington Avenue Line was among the subway system's 12 worst bottlenecks for passenger flow.

The MTA repaired the staircases, re-tiled the walls, added new tiling on the floors, upgraded the station's lights and the public address system, and installed ADA yellow safety threads along the platform edge, new signs, and new trackbeds in both directions.

[citation needed] This station was renovated in conjunction with the construction of the Bloomberg Tower at 59th Street and Lexington Avenue.

A legal battle between the city and the building's management over who is responsible for modifying the design caused the entrance to be temporarily closed between 2003 and 2006.

The IRT local platforms comprise the first basement level, running in a roughly north–south direction about 23 feet (7.0 m) below the street.

[122] The mosaic features larger versions of the coffee cups and slippers found on the platform walls, with the text: "In dreams begin responsibilities" and "Conduct your blooming in the noise and whip of the whirlwind".

[122][123] In creating Blooming, Murray said she "had this vision of people getting up really early, half in a dream state, putting on their clothes, drinking a cup of coffee and getting on the subway to go to work".

Staircases from the southbound Lexington Avenue Line platform lead to the southwestern and northwestern corners of Lexington Avenue and 59th Street, while there are two exits to the southeastern corner of that intersection from the northbound platform, with one leading directly to the street, and one located in a passageway to Bloomingdale's.

The station also has staircases to all four corners of Third Avenue and 60th Street, leading to a mezzanine with escalators for the Broadway Line platform.

[citation needed] There are whimsical stylized mosaics of coffee cups and slippers in varied colors at random spacing near the stairways to the Broadway and IRT local trains.

[69] The underpass near the south end of the station was originally the northbound platform for the extension of the BMT Broadway Line to Queens.

The distinctive "Lex" mosaics were preserved during the renovation, by installing pre-arranged blocks along the station wall that cup the Lexington Avenue Line above it.

The wall tiles have the red "Lex" evenly spaced out, similar to the IND style, with blue background, green borders, and white lettering.

[46][47] The Broadway subway plan was changed in 1915 to route both tracks into 60th Street and to cross the East River by a tunnel just north of the Queensboro Bridge.