Reply With QuoteQuestion: All the things listed above had to always be done. Why did they wait 5 (FIVE!!) years to get going on bids, EPA, tearing it down, when it was obvious from day one (9/11) ?Originally Posted by BrooklynRider
Based on experiences across the pit ( CLEANUP STOPS ) I wouldn't bet on any of those dates.
question: why all this time?
Question: All the things listed above had to always be done. Why did they wait 5 (FIVE!!) years to get going on bids, EPA, tearing it down, when it was obvious from day one (9/11) ?
Fiscal politics.
When both the city and state were facing deep budget deficits a few years ago, only CUNY wanted to build a new building. There was a shortfall of funds to rebuild, and a dispute with the insurance company. Two years ago, Doctoroff said, without any knowledge of the actual conditions inside, the building could be repaired.
I think it was just stalling to keep the funding out of the budget. It happens quite a bit.
Essay
A Sign of Renewal and a Reminder at Ground Zero
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
Published: May 23, 2006
Fiterman Hall didn't exactly overshadow the official opening of 7 World Trade Center today (the sun was in the wrong position for that) but the ragged remnant of 9/11 offered a silent reminder of how much more work there is to do.
With its shattered walls and missing windows, its emptied floors behind shroudlike nets, the 15-story Fiterman Hall played silent counterpoint — like the unwanted party guest that everyone notices but no one acknowledges — to the candied-apple exuberance of a plump Jeff Koons sculpture that was unveiled by Larry A. Silverstein, the developer of 7 World Trade Center, outside the building's front door on Greenwich Street.
The ragged remnant of Fiterman Hall, pictured in the background,
played silent counterpoint to an exuberant Jeff Koons sculpture
that was unveiled today.
The nine-foot-high, multilobed, stainless steel sculpture, "Balloon Flower (Red)," sits in a circular fountain in a new triangular park, about one-third of an acre, designed by Ken Smith Landscape Architect. It is framed by planters filled with azaleas and boxwood and by small groves of sweet gum trees.
Sweet gums are also intended for the World Trade Center memorial plaza but Mr. Smith did not know this until today, so the choice was coincidental. "They have a fabulous fall color," he explained.
"Balloon Flower (Red)" mimics on a colossal scale the twisted balloon creations that are a staple of children's parties. It is meant as a bit of fun in an otherwise somber setting. "We thought everybody would walk by it and smile," said David M. Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the architects of 7 World Trade Center.
Fiterman Hall, across Barclay Street, can wipe that smile off quickly.
This 1950's office building had been transformed into a classroom hall for the Borough of Manhattan Community College. Nearing the end of a six-year renovation, it was badly damaged on Sept. 11, 2001, by the collapse of the original 7 World Trade Center. It is to be decontaminated, demolished and replaced by a new Fiterman Hall.
But the federal Environmental Protection Agency has posed dozens of questions about a draft deconstruction plan that was submitted in January. The state Dormitory Authority, which is overseeing the project with the City University of New York, expects to submit an amended and expanded plan to the regulators in July.
On the fastest conceivable track, decontamination might begin in October and run through next February, with a four-. to six-month demolition to follow, suggesting that Mr. Koons's mirror-polished sculpture will be reflecting Fiterman's ghostly presence for quite some time to come.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
The settling of this building and the fact in the back of somepeople minds that it is contaminated as bad as 130 Liberty, is a large reason that 7 is struggling right now, once this thing is gone, i bet 7 can rent ASAP. With the article in the NY post today about there being no more space in the WFC, 7 becomes the only real good option in LM, if you want to be there
The bids for the demolition/abatement were opened---
LVI Environmental Services Inc
Mazzocchi Wrecking, Inc.$14,849,000
Pal Environmental Safety Corp.$17,671,000
Gramercy Group, Inc.$17,713,000
$19,651,973
Hmmm...let's see...I think we've got a winner!
It's LVI, what a surprise.
(just kidding, I'm not sure who it will be)
Are they required to choose the low bid?
yes and no
What does that mean?
Generally, all public authorities are bound by federal or state "free and open competition" requirements, which requires the authority to choose the lowest price qualified bid. The key issue is whether the lowest price bid is qualified -- meaning, does it satisfy all of the bid requirements. If not, then the contract goes to the next lowest bidder. These bid issues quite often get litigated by persons like me, as a lot of money can be at stake, and government employees sometimes can be less than evenhanded in the process.
Fiterman Hall with some guy (tastelessly?) relaxing out front, taken on Saturday:
Welcome back, Cz. Exams?
i was at 7 last evening, while checking up on a lease deal. the moer i look at Fiterman the worse it gets, they have a sign saying 2009, the GS building will be done before this dahm thing. This is what happens again when the city/state our running the show and not a private developer
Stuck in Boston starting a summer job of hopefully limited duration. The photo was from a Memorial weekend trip back into the City (yes, I think I will start to address it that way), one of probably many. I feel increasingly less at home in New England than in New York.Welcome back, Cz. Exams?
As far as Fiterman Hall goes, I would prefer if one 9/11 affected building, at least, were left in ruin as a poignant reminder that no half-billion dollar memorial could ever truly achieve. It works at the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedaechtniskirche in Berlin:
And famously, of course, at the A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima:
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks