I am more than satisfied; I believe that the final design surpasses that of the original World Trade Center. 10/10
While nothing may ever live up to the Twin Towers, I am wholly satisfied with the new World Trade Center; it is a new symbol for a new era. 7/10
I have come to terms with the new World Trade Center; although it has a number of flaws, I find the design to be acceptable. 5/10
I am wholly disappointed with the New World Trade Center; we will live to regret the final design. 0/10
I am biased, but honest, and hate anything that is not a reincarnation of the original Twin Towers.
It could be viewed that actions of the PA actually saved LS from financial ruin. If he'd fully controlled WTC 2 & 3 in July 2008 as previously planned then those LS self-financed projects would have been stalled for the better part of the past year during which he'd have been scrambling to bail himself out. LS should be thanking his lucky stars and show some humility and at least try to do the right thing. Instead he seems to be figuring out the best way to line his own pockets at the expense of the rest of us and in desregard to common sense.
It's a big stretch to claim (despite he fact that he's pocketed $100M in penalties, which he apparently and oddly refuses to kick into the project) that, due to these supposed hardships, the LS controlled projects should now be financed by PA money. And btw: isn't that, in essence, the taxpayers' money?.
Pride goeth you know where.
If general state of economics can be used as a defense to alter a contract then let's all give that one a try next time the rent / mortgage payment / dinner check comes around.
Me to waiter: "I'd love to pay the $150 for our delicious filet mignon dinner for two, but the collapse of the ecomony during the past two hours makes it impossible. If you could please slide me $100 I'll gladly consider returning for another tasty meal."
^^^So IYO the fight is....
Silverstein has shown himself once again to be a typical grimeball NYC developer and hence a more direct eveolutionary decendant of rats than a normal human being. This POS is trying to get his cake and eat it. If this had been a regular site and he would have normally leased it and developed it he would have had to taken his lumps and gut out the economic downturn. But since he knows that his counterparts at the PA are a bunch of incompentents he sniffing around is trying to expliot their abject ineptitude to minimize his risks. But he doesnt mind risking the further healing of this open wound on NYC landscape. Dirtbag.
There he goes, Larry Silverstein, <sigh!> like that sewer rat you see in the subway track sniffing around for that discarded crumb.
You paint the scene much more clearly than I ever could have
Ay yi yi ...
Secret report: Ground Zero Freedom Tower construction lags, slated for 2018 finish
NY Daily News
BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
August 4th 2009
A secret report predicts the Freedom Tower - billed as America's defiant answer to terrorism - won't be finished until 17 years after the 9/11 attacks.
A 2018 opening for the iconic, 1,776-foot building would come more than four years after the opening date the Port Authority trumpeted just 10 months ago, the government report found.
The July 14 "confidential draft...risk analysis" by the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center (LMCCC) found that every blockbuster project at Ground Zero has fallen years behind time lines the PA unveiled in October.
The report says the grandiose transportation hub may not be ready until 2018, while the Sept. 11 Memorial, the site's emotional centerpiece, could be two years behind its 2011 deadline.
The report contradicts the "aggressive yet realistic schedules" PA boss Chris Ward gave Gov. Paterson.
Virtually every one of those dates has turned out to be unrealistic, said the LMCCC, which reports to Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg.
"The covenant with the people of lower Manhattan has been broken," said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who reviewed the report at the request of the Daily News. "Ground Zero has been left to look like an unfinished parking lot, and that's an international scandal of epic proportions."
The PA strongly defended its work.
"The dates are wrong," chief spokesman Stephen Sigmund said. "Our comprehensive analysis, completed every month, shows we are on schedule to meet the completion dates we released last October."
The LMCCC refused to discuss details, saying its work was a "preliminary draft...for discussion purposes only" and that its dates "should not be considered valid until the ongoing review process is completed."
The revelations came as Paterson slapped an ultimatum on developer Larry Silverstein yesterday, saying the PA was preparing to redevelop the 16-acre site without him if necessary.
The LMCCC didn't address the budget-busting impact of blown deadlines on a project that's billions in the hole. But the contrast between LMCCC and other versions of Ground Zero reality is stark:
>> FREEDOM TOWER: The PA insists the 102-story, $3.1 billion Freedom Tower will be finished by December 2013. The LMCCC says there's an 80% probability the signature tower will open by January 2018 - and a 20% chance it will debut even later. There's a 50-50 chance it could open in November 2016.
>> THE MEMORIAL: Sept. 11 Memorial President Joe Daniels is confident the memorial will open permanently, with operating waterfalls, by Sept. 11, 2011. The PA promised a partial opening by then.
The LMCCC said the twin reflecting pools may not be operational in time for the 10th anniversary in 2011 - or even 2012.
It also predicted an 80% chance the plaza won't be finished until May 2013 and warned that the opening could be delayed as late as January 2014.
>> TRANSPORTATION HUB: The PA has repeatedly promised a June 2014 opening of the sprawling PATH terminal. The LMCCC says most likely it won't be finished until September 2018, more than four years later.
© 2009 Daily News, L.P. All rights reserved
Sad.
I find that hard to believe, the tower looks ready to start shooting up. There would have to be a disaster for it to take 9 years from now for it to be open.
Don't even think about. Just look at some pics and imagine it being done ...
Photo Gallery:
World Trade Center Construction Update - 8/3/2009
Photographs from the World Trade Center site (Ground Zero)
in Lower Manhattan on Monday, August 3, 2009.
Note this:
The superstructure of One World Trade Center (formerly known at the Freedom Tower) is seen (R) on Ground Zero August 3, 2009 in New York City. .
The July 14 "confidential draft...risk analysis" by the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center (LMCCC) found that every blockbuster project at Ground Zero has fallen years behind time lines the PA unveiled in October.
The report says the grandiose transportation hub may not be ready until 2018, while the Sept. 11 Memorial, the site's emotional centerpiece, could be two years behind its 2011 deadline.
The report contradicts the "aggressive yet realistic schedules" PA boss Chris Ward gave Gov. Paterson.
Virtually every one of those dates has turned out to be unrealistic, said the LMCCC, which reports to Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg.
"The covenant with the people of lower Manhattan has been broken," said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who reviewed the report at the request of the Daily News. "Ground Zero has been left to look like an unfinished parking lot, and that's an international scandal of epic proportions."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/08/04/2009-08-04_touted_ground_zero_construction_projects_years_ off_schedule__report_behind_the_t.html#ixzz0NEL75M P8
At least build *one* more of the towers. Please? What a sad, sad mess.
I can imagine the scene at Daily News:
"Hey, this report says they might not get the new uprated dehumidifiers until 2018!"
"Freedom Tower delayed until 2018! That's our headline, run with it!"
"We sure are evil boss."
"Yep."
From Crains:
August 04, 2009 3:35 PM
Silverstein to seek arbitration over Ground Zero
Developer informs Port Authority he wants a binding resolution over funding of office towers, in a move seen as likely to further delay completion of the World Trade Center site.
By Theresa Agovino
[+] Photo by Buck Ennis
Developer Larry Silverstein informed the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey on Tuesday that he was pressing ahead with binding arbitration in an attempt to break the impasse with the agency over funding two of his towers at Ground Zero, after months of negotiation failed to produce a solution.
“One way or another, we must resolve, once and for all, the disputes that have arisen as a result of the Port Authority’s continued and admitted delays [in constructing the site],” Mr. Silverstein said in a statement.
The move is likely to exacerbate the mounting tensions between the two sides and will potentially stretch out the timeline for completing the site. Just two weeks ago, Gov. David Paterson announced he would personally negotiate with Mr. Silverstein in an effort to avoid arbitration, which he said could take six to nine months. Mr. Silverstein said the arbitration would begin in September, and sources said he didn't expect it to take anywhere near six months. A spokesman for Mr. Silverstein declined to say how much he was seeking in damages in the arbitration, but in the past, the developer has made a point of saying he has paid $2.75 billion in rent to the Port.
Negotiations can continue during arbitration, but Mr. Paterson had noted that under such circumstances, the two sides would be at each other’s throats.
The development comes a day after Mr. Paterson told Mr. Silverstein that the Port was working on designs so the public part of the site could be rebuilt even if the developer doesn’t move ahead. Much of the site’s infrastructure is intertwined, so adjustments will be necessary if Mr. Silverstein doesn’t begin building at least the lower portions of his towers. One is currently under construction.
The action also follows the revelation that in a preliminary report, the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center found that every major project at the site was woefully behind schedule. For example, the report said there was only an 80% chance that the Freedom Tower will open by 2018. Ten months ago, the Port Authority said the tower would be finished by the end of 2013.
Likewise, the Port promised that part of the Sept. 11 Memorial would be open by the 10th anniversary of the attacks. The report predicted that there was an 80% chance that the memorial’s plaza wouldn’t be finished until May 2013, and that it could be delayed until January 2014. The report was first published in the New York Daily News.
In a statement, the Command Center said that the report was only preliminary, and that these dates should not be considered valid until the ongoing review process is completed. A Command Center spokeswoman couldn’t say when that would be.
A Port Authority spokesman says they are on track to meet the deadlines the agency laid out last October in a revised schedule.
Nonetheless, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg expressed outrage about the report, calling the prospect of additional and significant delays “simply unacceptable.” He noted when the Port released its revised schedule, it also promised long-needed transparency about progress at the site. He insisted that the agency hasn’t delivered on its pledges to detail whether it was meeting its goals.
“We must see immediate changes, starting with genuine, independent and constant oversight of the Port Authority’s progress,” said the mayor, who attempted to broker a compromise between the agency and the developer before ultimately siding with Mr. Silverstein. He called for the Command Center to stop receiving funding from the Port and to provide regular public audits on the site.
Mr. Silverstein has said that chronic problems and delays at the site interfered with his ability to construct his three towers and caused him to miss out on financing that would have been relatively easy to obtain in 2007.
Now credit markets are virtually closed, so Mr. Silverstein asked the Port to guarantee more than $3 billion so he can build two of his three towers. The Port agreed to aid with one but said it would help with the other only if Mr. Silverstein put up $600 million first. The agency has said that putting more money into a private real estate venture would be too risky and would take funds away from funding other key projects.
In a statement, the Port Authority’s executive director, Chris Ward, said that Mr. Silverstein has now rejected four offers, so it’s clear that he will accept nothing less than two fully subsidized office buildings, which is “irresponsible and unacceptable. This arbitration process cannot distract from that fundamental point—that [Silverstein Properties] would rather have public dollars at risk in place of its own private investment.”
Mr. Ward said that many other developers have had to put their projects on hold because of the economic recession. He added that Mr. Silverstein was not supposed to get the sites until the end of 2008, well after the recession had already set in.
“The bottom line is, Silverstein didn’t miss the market; the market missed Silverstein,” Mr. Ward said.
The governor’s office did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Go Silverstein, go Silveratein, go Silverstein!
Get on their butts and make them stop this stalling crap!!
Then why would the PA offer to chip in hundreds of millions in financingOriginally Posted by ZippyTheChimp
Has Silverstein ever had to account for the $$$ Billions he received in insurance payouts?
Add that to the $$$ Millions in penalties he's received and it would seem that he could make somethiing happen.
Or is he just following Max Bialystock's advice from The Producers:
"NEVER PUT YOUR MONEY IN THE SHOW!"
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