Libeskind, Foster and Rogers towers to be $3bn over budget and two years late, says report
The redevelopment of the former World Trade Center site in New York will not be completed until 2013, some $3bn (£1.5bn) over budget, according to a new report.
Work on site, which will be the home of star architect Daniel Libeskind’s 541m Freedom Tower, has been delayed by wrangling over a transport hub at the scheme’s foot, said a report by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The scheme will now cost $18bn (£9bn), instead of the original budget of $15bn (£7.5bn).
The report said the five office towers, including one each designed by Foster + Partners and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, would be completed “though the question is when and for how much”.
Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, warned that the $3.4bn (£1.7bn) transport hub designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava may be too expensive to be built.
Bloomberg said: "Whether we can afford the Calatrava design, which was spectacular, I don't know. That's the last piece and the most problematic because there is no money for it."
The report was commissioned by New York governor David Paterson. The former governor George Pataki once predicted that the steel for Libeskind’s tower would be up by 2006. It has, however, only just risen above street level.
The scheme was originally intended to be complete by the 10th anniversary of the 2001 attacks.
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