Gothamist: Inflation Worries Hit World Trade Center Transit Hub

glennQNYC

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:47:01 -0500

Weren't we told the MTA was in dire need of money? Wasn't that the reason the mayor wanted to tax every moving vehicle (weather they had a mass transit option or not)? This is like a sub-prime mortgage! Buy/build something you can afford MTA!

GM

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:10:22 -0500

Oh, and edgar, I wouldn't vote Democrat if I had your opinion. Labor is expensive, but it's the rules and regs that are really slowing construction down. Plus architects and consultants. ;)

GM

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:10:07 -0500

Oh, and edgar, I wouldn't vote Democrat if I had your opinion. Labor is expensive, but it's the rules and regs that are really slowing construction down. Plus architects and consultants. ;)

GM

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:06:14 -0500

It's kind of a dumb and over-architected. What's going to be there, the 1-2-3 and the PATH? It looks great from the inside, I think the half-arch columns are sweet. I would keep that interior below ground and chop off the top part. Calatrava can do a lot of things up top that would be a lot cheaper. Unfortunately it's one of the few things about the WTC area designs that everyone seems to love. So what'll happen is they'll neuter it in an attempt to save money and it'll end up turning out to be completely passionless. I can think of many colors, color combinations, and materials that would make this look a lot better than the all white motif. Calatrava's gotta stop with the white already.

Ph

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:22:07 -0500

Yeah, it did look like a fish skeleton. Just build something akin to the old Penn Station and be done with it. Nice gothic architecture. Oh that's right, stone is too expensive.

Kevin Walsh

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:29:44 -0500

Call me a Philistine but I always thought that thing looked more like a fish skeleton than anything else, and yes, I knew it would never get built. I wish it were different, but grand architectural statements in our public buildings are a thing of the past. When the money is there, the arguments about what should get built go back and forth. Then the money runs out when the economy goes bad, and you're left with something utilitarian, with or without Fedders. Come to think of it why NOT put a Fedders palace there. Perfect symbol of where we are right now. www.forgotten-ny.com

EastRiver

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:11:09 -0500

My Management professor from Baruch was right. That hole in the ground will be there for the next 20 years. Aren't they already at work on the foundation for 1 WTC aka the Freedom Tower?

edgar

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:05:12 -0500

"Here we are in 2008, told that a lousy transit center can't be completed with a $2.2 billion dollar budget? " It all goes to the lucky connected few who can get the union jobs. Of course, unions' effect of making labor more expensive means that it's less desirable to build things that use workers, so labor wages go up, but less people are employed (see the car industry), and the bill for the cushy union jobs for the Few are passed on to us.

Think twice

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:29:00 -0500

My Management professor from Baruch was right. That hole in the ground will be there for the next 20 years.

ny2102

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:21:36 -0500

Watching New York stumble all over its mega projects, especially downtown, is so shameful and infuriating, especially while other cities around the country are exploding. Just look at the stuff Chicago is actually building. There's something seriously wrong with the entire process here.

sinisterteashop

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:05:21 -0500

Embarrassing. Port Authority, if you can't afford it, don't buy the stupid thing. Don't start grubbing around for a discount. And who got it into their head that billion dollar real estate romance and international design stars was the way to memorialize 9/11? Embarrassing, embarrassing, embarrassing.

TK

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:57:04 -0500

This will be the NYC version of Boston's Big Dig!

drewo

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:54:24 -0500

If you want to see some great Calatrava, visit the Milwaukee Art Museum. Unlike New York, that's a city that knows how to get things done.

MaiaW

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:28:50 -0500

Looks like this other Calatrava downtown Manhattan project is also doomed: http://curbed.com/archives/2008/04/16/calatravas_tower_o_penthouses_passes_on_to_great_unknown.php#reader_comments

pissyrabbit

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:28:17 -0500

Had they started it a few years ago when they should have instead of 6 years of fighting over every tiny detail of that 10 square block radius we would have not only a transit center that said something about NYC, we might also have a memorial. This is absolutely shameful. All of it.

grooverider

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:01:22 -0500

to #3: More regulations today and of course more lazy bastard unions.

grooverider

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:01:07 -0500

to #3: More regulations today and of course more lazy bastards unions.

babyhitler

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:57:53 -0500

that thing looks so fucking unbelievably unbuildable. You know they aren't gonna build that thing. Architects and their abstract conceptual mock-ups. In the end it's just gonna be some brick steel dome or something.

zstone

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:47:28 -0500

The one thing we thought was a lock at the site is now in trouble, just like every other investment in the city's infrastructure. Can we take some money from the millionaire Wall Street fucks who put the country into this economic tailspin we're experiencing?

eyekantspel

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:46:32 -0500

The Empire State Building was built in one year- started in 1930 and finished in 1931, during the beginning of the Great Depression. Cost of completion: $41M. Adjusted for inflation: approx. $500M. The Chrysler Building was started in September 1928 and completed by May 1930. Cost of completion: $20M. Adjusted for inflation: approx. $240M. Here we are in 2008, told that a lousy transit center can't be completed with a $2.2 billion dollar budget? Seriously, these criminals are robbing us of countless millions and then have the gall to ask for more.

zpk

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:40:57 -0500

To me it looks more like a whale skeleton than a bird in flight.

grooverider

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:24:43 -0500

They could have capitalized on radically altering the landscape forever marking NYC as a serious architectural powerhouse in the new century, but just like the country as a whole... we are going down hill very quickly and will be a complete and total joke.