Buildings
WTC Memorial Estimate Close to $1 Billion
(archrecord.construction.com - 05/05/2006)
By Sam
Lubell
According to a confidential report compiled
for the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, which is overseeing
fundraising and construction at the memorial, the estimated
total cost for the memorial and its museum has ballooned to
about $972 million. The Foundation insists it should only
pay for about two-thirds of the $972 million, with government
agencies funding related infrastructure. In response, the
Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), which oversees
all construction on the site, has insisted that the cost must
remain $500 million.
The LMDC selected the project’s
designer, Michael Arad, in January 2004 and originally estimated
its cost at around $500 million.
The new cost estimate was produced by
project management company Bovis Lend Lease on behalf of the
Memorial Foundation. Bovis’s report estimates the cost
of the memorial and its related museum at $672 million, and
the cost of related buildings and infrastructure at $200 to
$300 million.
LMDC spokesman John Gallagher noted
in a statement that the budget for the memorial must remain
$500 million, suggesting that there might be “appropriate
strategies” to build the project at that figure. He did
not specify what those strategies might be.
The Memorial Foundation says the projected
$672 million price for the memorial and museum was higher
than anticipated because the project was more complex than
originally intended, its scope was larger than foreseen, and
an increased amount of construction in the area had driven
up costs. The Foundation insists that $672 million, not $1
billion, is the only relevant cost estimate since the foundation
“should not have to pay for site-wide infrastructure
costs, which include structural systems, mechanical fit-out
of the central chiller plant, and a police and emergency operations
center.” A source at the Foundation says that “government
agencies should help offset infrastructure costs.”
The Memorial Foundation has thus far
raised $130 million in private donations and $200 million
in committed funds from the LMDC for the memorial and museum.
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