Memorial's Back on Hold
BY PAUL D. COLFORDDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
With costs soaring toward $1 billion, the design for the World Trade Center Memorial is headed back to the drawing board for a major overhaul.
Mayor Bloomberg revealed yesterday that he, Gov. Pataki and New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine agreed to cap the cost of the memorial and memorial museum at $500 million - far below the current design's projected price.
The estimate the WTC Memorial Foundation got for designer Michael Arad's two sunken pools, a tree-filled plaza and exhibition halls came in at $672 million.
That doesn't include $300 million needed for infrastructure costs - pushing the project close to $1billion.
As it stands, only $100 million was going toward infrastructure work under the Port Authority's restructured Trade Center lease with developer Larry Silverstein.
Bloomberg said spending more than $500 million would be "inappropriate" and that the project had to be viewed "in the context of what we can afford."
"Nobody designs anything without the real-world financial constraints," he added.
Bloomberg's announcement came more than two years after Arad's memorial design was chosen and two months after site preparation began.
The design for a sunken memorial has raised security concerns among 9/11 family groups and government officials.
Former FBI man James Kallstrom, Pataki's counterterrorism aide and adviser on Trade Center security, recently flagged the need to shore up the design.
In addition, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said yesterday that the NYPD also raised "some issues, some questions" with the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which has led memorial planning.
Asked what changes are needed, Kelly said, "Sounds to me like there's going to be ... probably a significant change in design."
The $500 million budget presents a formidable challenge, with the memorial set to open on Sept. 11, 2009.
"We will continue to look at appropriate strategies to accomplish that goal," the LMDC said in a statement yesterday.
Charles Wolf, a member of LMDC's Families Advisory Council who lost his wife on 9/11, said yesterday's news "reflects a failure of leadership at the bureaucratic level of LMDC to implement this properly."
With costs soaring toward $1 billion, the design for the World Trade Center Memorial is headed back to the drawing board for a major overhaul.
Mayor Bloomberg revealed yesterday that he, Gov. Pataki and New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine agreed to cap the cost of the memorial and memorial museum at $500 million - far below the current design's projected price.
The estimate the WTC Memorial Foundation got for designer Michael Arad's two sunken pools, a tree-filled plaza and exhibition halls came in at $672 million.
That doesn't include $300 million needed for infrastructure costs - pushing the project close to $1billion.
As it stands, only $100 million was going toward infrastructure work under the Port Authority's restructured Trade Center lease with developer Larry Silverstein.
Bloomberg said spending more than $500 million would be "inappropriate" and that the project had to be viewed "in the context of what we can afford."
"Nobody designs anything without the real-world financial constraints," he added.
Bloomberg's announcement came more than two years after Arad's memorial design was chosen and two months after site preparation began.
The design for a sunken memorial has raised security concerns among 9/11 family groups and government officials.
Former FBI man James Kallstrom, Pataki's counterterrorism aide and adviser on Trade Center security, recently flagged the need to shore up the design.
In addition, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said yesterday that the NYPD also raised "some issues, some questions" with the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which has led memorial planning.
Asked what changes are needed, Kelly said, "Sounds to me like there's going to be ... probably a significant change in design."
The $500 million budget presents a formidable challenge, with the memorial set to open on Sept. 11, 2009.
"We will continue to look at appropriate strategies to accomplish that goal," the LMDC said in a statement yesterday.
Charles Wolf, a member of LMDC's Families Advisory Council who lost his wife on 9/11, said yesterday's news "reflects a failure of leadership at the bureaucratic level of LMDC to implement this properly."
posted by "Faces of the Brave" at 10:45 AM
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