Archinect - News

US Embassy in Jerusalem will cost at least $20M more than Trump's $250,000 bargain estimate

2018-07-19T15:39:00-04:00

President Donald Trump boasted earlier this year that the US would spend only $200,000 to $300,000 on a new US Embassy in Jerusalem, but it seems the project will cost nearly $20 million more than that estimate. [...] The US spent just under $400,000 on modifications to the consular facility that allowed it to open as the US Embassy in May, but the State Department told CNN at the time that it planned "for construction of a new extension [...] as well as for additional security enhancements"

Back in March, the 'Builder in Chief' promised that the highly controversial new United States Embassy in Jerusalem would have to be built "very quickly and very inexpensively" at a bargain price tag of around $250,000. According to documents made public this month, the State Department however recently awarded a $21.2 million contract to the firm Desbuild Limak D&K to design and build an extension and compound security upgrades to the former consular building in Jerusalem's Arnona neighborhood—nearly 100 times the original estimate.

New York Wheel faces enormous challenges to become viable

2017-11-01T13:27:00-04:00

Work has ground to a halt at the New York Wheel, a massive attraction that developers say will help turn the St. George Ferry Terminal into a bustling tourist destination. The latest projections put the wheel’s price tag at $590 million, more than twice initial estimates. The developers concede there have been setbacks, but they say they are still on firm financial footing and expect the project to succeed.

Building an audience from scratch for a new, expensive attraction on Staten Island's North Shore where visitors are also willing to spend $35 per ride to recover the half-billion-plus-dollar investment will be a steep challenge, Crain's reports: "To break even, the wheel likely needs to attract closer to 3 million visitors annually at $35 per head, judging from the developers' previous comments and information from Hunden Stratetgic Partners."

NYC's super skinny skyscraper is fat with cost overruns, prompting a lawsuit

2017-07-27T17:09:00-04:00

The best things in life are free, but construction cranes still cost money, which has prompted an investor to sue the developers behind SHoP's 111 West 57th Street for failing to budget appropriately for the cost of cranes (among other things) for the super skinny tower, which is already way over budget and only approximately 25% assembled. According to Curbed NY:

One of the investors on the project is suing the developers and the lender over alleged construction cost overruns.

The lawsuit, filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court, alleges that the project is already $50 million over budget when it hasn’t even reached 20-stories yet. Eventually the building is proposed to rise to 1,421 feet with 82 stories.

What does Trump's 20% tariff hike on Canadian softwoods mean for architecture?

2017-04-29T13:51:00-04:00

What will higher timber prices as a result of Trump's new tarriff mean for architecture? Dr. Warren Mabee, who is the Canada Research Chair in Renewable Energy Development and Implementation at Queen's University, told me over the phone that it will likely halt or significantly alter the design and construction of formerly ubiquitous wood-frame residences. "I think one of the big things you're going to see, particularly in the U.S., is that introducing this type of tariff or countervailing duty, is that it will drive up the price of lumber. What that will mean is that for architects who are specializing particularly in residential construction, where there is a lot of wood and wood frame that goes into it, they may find themselves limited in what they can do. So if you're building something that's on a budget or something that's going to use a lot of wood, you may find yourself in a position where the costs are now going to be substantively higher than prior to the tariff being intr...

Seized “Skopje 2014” documents could lead to criminal investigation

2016-10-20T14:36:00-04:00

Documents that Macedonia's Special Prosecution, SJO, seized on Tuesday with a court order from the Culture Ministry refer to a million-euros-worth tender to build the Museum of VMRO and Macedonian Struggle for Independence...The SJO [...] says it will reveal the start of two new investigations. If one refers to "Skopje 2014", it will be the first-ever serious criminal investigation into this costly project which, according to BIRN’s database, has cost 667 million euros already.

Balkan Insight reports that the hefty €667 million+ price tag (approx. $730 million+) of the grandiose revamp “was mainly due to the signing of 123 contracts with firms and individuals for its construction, many of which were annexes to the original contract.”

Balkan Investigative Reporting Network's database: Skopje 2014 Uncovered.

Previously on Archinect:

Macedonians protest to protect modernism

Macedonian Makeover: Europe's Flailing Capital of Kitsch

Leaky gutter at unfinished Vikings stadium adds $3M - $4M to cost overruns

2016-02-22T13:18:00-05:00

Mortenson Construction Vice President John Wood said stadium designers and builders will cover the cost, so it won’t be added to the overall budget or cost taxpayers or the team any money. [...] the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority tentatively agreed to pay Mortenson $16 million for cost overruns even though the final figures are still being tallied. The authority is overseeing construction of the $1.1 billion stadium and approved the payment to resolve a mediation claim by Mortensen.

Related on Archinect:

A 2,500% budget overrun: the story of the Bay Bridge's dramatic cost inflation from $250M to $6.5B

2015-10-15T15:46:00-04:00

With Frick and her book [Remaking the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge] as guide, CityLab tracked bridge expenses over time to get some sense of how the project that Herbert Hoover once called “the greatest bridge yet constructed in the world” became yet another example of a major public works project in which the cost ended outrageously higher than it began—and some ideas for what to do about it.

Zaha Hadid isn't the only one who has suffered from hugely inflated construction estimates: back in 1995, Caltrans estimated that it would only cost $250 million to retrofit the earthquake-damaged Bay Bridge. Eleven years and several construction estimates later, that figure had swollen to $6.5 billion, and some officials feel that it may rise as high as $13 billion after all the interest and financing costs are tallied up.

“I thought, ‘What?’ when I heard it would cost ¥252 billion,” Tadao Ando says about National Stadium

2015-07-16T14:32:00-04:00

World-famous architect Tadao Ando was astonished to learn that the design he chose for the new National Stadium would cost ¥252 billion to build, he said at a press conference Thursday, where he spoke for the first time since the swelling cost became an issue.

According to Reuters, the massive ballooning in the construction costs of Zaha Hadid's relatively unpopular proposed design for Japan's National Stadium are not the fault of the chairman of the design committee, Tadao Ando: "Soaring construction and labor costs, along with a rise in Japan's sales tax, are blamed for much of the price surge." Ando also noted that “We shouldn’t drop Ms. Hadid’s design, otherwise we’ll lose credibility internationally.” The enormous increase in the cost of the stadium is awkward, as the country is still not fully recovered from the devastation of the March 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.