James Gardner of the Real Deal recently sat down with architect Santiago Calatrava, who offered some insights about the semi-controversial and super expensive World Trade Center transit hub. "I think it turned out well, especially the part that was made of steel. That steel section is unique in the world. It is completely new. At the same time, it invokes some very iconic New York structures, like the suspension bridges across the Hudson and the East River." [TRD;previously; photo by Will Femia]Why the World Trade Center Transit Hub Cost $4 Billion
[Image via WTC Progress]
The World Trade Center Transportation Hub gets a lot of flack for itsbloated $4 billion price tag, and for good reason. The hub is a reportedeight years behind schedule and costing $2 billion over initial estimates. What oculus architect Santiago Calatrava has to show for his efforts is an abstract structural porcupine (sorry, "bird in flight") that is celebrated by a few but more notably bemoaned by many. Now, theTimes has taken to exposing just where that extra $2 billion came into play in the project. Warning: mind-boggling complications ahead.
1) $655 Million+: Administrative costs, which the Times runs down as "construction management, supervision, inspection, monitoring and documentation, among other items."
World Trade Center Hub Tops Out with Final Rafter Installation
West view of WTC site, November 4, via Facebook/WTC Progress
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Last we checked in on the progress of Santiago Calatrava's long-overdue, vastly overbudget World Trade Center Transportation Hub, workers were just beginning to install the 114 rafters that would turn the ambitious structure into a "flying bird." According to the developers at the time, the rafter installation was expected to be finished by August. Now it's November, and the final rafter has just been put in place, which, in the grand scheme of World Trade Center construction estimates, is pretty good. With this milestone finally reached, the hub is (supposedly) on pace for a late 2015 grand opening.
The Status of the World Trade Center Complex, 13 Years Later
[World Trade Center site. Photo: Port Authority]
Today marks the 13th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, and although the 16-acre World Trade Center complex is far from complete, a substantial amount has been rebuilt, filling a long-empty piece of Downtown. "We all wish we could have gotten it done faster," said World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein this week, "but that does not diminish the pride we all should feel." The 9/11 Memorial has now welcomed visitors for three years, the first tenants will soon move into 4 World Trade Center, and the crown jewel of it all, the 1,776-foot One World Trade Center will finally open its this fall.
World Trade Center Transportation Hub Is Basically a Big Mess
New York Post archicritic Steve Cuozzo decided to go ahead and ream the unfinished, Santiago Calatrava-designed World Trade Center Transportation Hub last month, calling it a "self-indulgent monstrosity" and "LOL-ugly" (yeah... good one, Steve). But the perpetually under-construction transportation hub has, throughout its fraught history, had much bigger problems than sideline criticism. Today, the Wall Street Journal delves into why the station — eight years behind schedule and $2 billion over budget — has become such a (for lack of a better word) shitshow. The reasons are manifold.
To distill all those problems down to one main problem, though, the transportation hub (which is supposed to open in 2015, but we'll see about that) has become a proverbial camel (a horse designed by committee), "sunk in a morass of politics and government." With the Port Authority, Larry Silverstein, and various city, state, and federal agencies all contributing to the development, the project was seemingly never able to nail down a cohesive plan or strategy. Now, the Port Authority, which was ostensibly the most in charge, is blaming everyone else — the MTA for insisting on including the 1 train instead of building a new line, former Governor George Pataki for siding with the MTA, architect Calatrava for designing such a complicated structure, et cetera. The whole piece is very interesting and certainly worth a read.
· Complex Design, Political Disputes Send World Trade Center Rail Hub's Cost Soaring [WSJ]
· World Trade Center Transportation Hub coverage [Curbed]
Photo by ILNY_
· Complex Design, Political Disputes Send World Trade Center Rail Hub's Cost Soaring [WSJ]
· World Trade Center Transportation Hub coverage [Curbed]
Photo by ILNY_
500 Sterling Pl. 50% Leased; Parts of WTC To Get Free WiFi
CROWN HEIGHTS—After just one month on the market, 40 of the 77 apartments at 500 Sterling Place are now leased. Current offerings of the buildings studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments range from $2,190 to $4,681. The building was developed by Adam America. [CurbedWire inbox; official; previously]
WORLD TRADE CENTER—The development of the 21st century will be very of-the-21st-century with free Boingo Wi-Fi available throughout select sections of the new World Trade Center. Areas included in the scheme are Calatrava's Transportation Hub, PATH station, and retail locations. [CurbedWire inbox]
Archicritic Trashes Transportation Hub, Calls It 'LOL-ugly'
New York Post archicritic Steve Cuozzo is, to put it lightly, not pleased with how Santiago Calatrava's radical design for the World Trade Center Transportation hub is turning out. In his new article "New York's $4B shrine to government waste and idiocy," Cuozzo reams the pricey undertaking as a work better in theory; he labels it, in actuality, a self-serving vanity act by Calatrava, a mar on the site of reverence that is the World Trade Center plaza, a cheapy-looking plastic dragon that would scare a child. Cuozzo gets more vicious (and pithy) than that. Read on for the ten best lines from Cuzzo's vicious letter of dissent.
1. "Here comes The Calatrasaurus7#151;the Port Authority's 'World Trade Center Transportation Hub,' a cyclopean PATH terminal onto which scary 'wings' have been grafted like plastic mutant terrors of 1950s sci-fi movies."
Calatrava's World Trade Center Transit Hub Spreads Its Wings
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Since the last check-in on the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, the long-overdue project has sprouted wings. Yes, those white dohickies protruding from the "flying bird" are currently being installed. According to the the WTC Progress Facebook page, all the rafters for the oculus should be in place by August, and welding will come after, and the hub set to open next year. (Don't make any bets.) When all's said and done, it will look like this flying bird, but who feels like a porcupine or stegasaurus vibe is more palpable right now? So iles to go, but at least there's progress, which helps everyone forget thatthe $4B project is delayed and over-budget.
The Daily News recently chatted with architect Santiago Calatrava, who's known around the world for exceeding budgets and missing deadlines. In New York, that's exactly what happened with his WTC transit hub, but he "defends himself as a small cog in a massive machine at work on what is, arguably, the most complex construction project since the Tower of Babel." Calatrava says, "We are responsible for 20% of the project while two multinationals with thousands of employees make most of the decisions — there is only so much we can do." [NYDN; previously]Santiago Calatrava's Flying Bird Takes Shape at the WTC
Uploaded to the WTC Progress Facebook earlier today, March 19.
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The new World Trade Center transportation hub has come under fire for a lot of things—mostly for being billions of dollars over budget and years past the original opening date—but one thing is for sure: the development, with its exposed rib cage structure, makes for some really fun construction watching. Architect Santiago Calatrava wooed the city 10 years ago when he proposed this "bird in flight" design, butvalue engineering chipped away much of the finesse and left us with a something less like a graceful bird, and more like a chunky stegosaurus. Even still, now that it's actually rising on the site, it certainly inspires a bit of awe.
The first platform of the long-awaited Santiago Calatrava-designed World Trade Center Transportation Hub opened last week, stunning visitors with its $3.94 billion beauty—well, not quite. David Dunlap of the Times says the thing looks "cheap" thanks to "clunky fixtures and some rough workmanship." Joints in the steel beams are "conspicuously unfinished" and a train signal was installed directly in front of an iridescent mosaic mural. Some details may be smoothed over, but the architects note that "concerns of time, budget and scheduling have often taken precedence over quality." [NYT;previously]The first PATH train platform at the new World Trade Center station was officially unveiled today. The PATH station is at the center of the bird-in-flight, delayed-and-over-budget $4 billion transportation hub project, which is designed bySantiago Calatrava and features a soaring main hall. The official WTC Progress Facebook page posted the Port Authority's video of the first train pulling into the station, in which anxious onlookers gape and meekly record the momentous occasion via their cell phones. The hub is scheduled for completion in 2015. [WSJ; previously]
Last week, the underground walkway?West Concourse, in official parlance?between Brookfield Place and the World Trade Center site and PATH station opened. Because it's Calatrava, of course it's gonna be expensive, but apparently the thing had a price tag of $225 million. That "would buy an entire subway station and one kilometer of tunnel in most continental European cities. For the Port Authority, it buys a few hundred feet of elaborately designed underground hallway." Whew! [Next City; photo via Flickr/Noel Y.C.; previously]
Turns out it's not just in New York that Santiago Calatrava spends millions over budget and misses deadlines by, oh, years. In his native Valencia, where he's got a megaproject or two, he is apparently vilified. His bird-like design(of dubious value) for the World Trade Center's PATH station has a price tag of $4 billion (double its original cost) and is six years behind schedule. One Spanish politician has even launched an anti-Calatrava site called Calatravatelaclava, "which loosely translates as, 'Calatrava bleeds you dry.'" Sounds about right. [NYT; previously]
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