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]
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