The skylight that crowns the spiky, $3.9 billion World Trade Center Oculus has sprung a leak.
A rubber seal that runs along the spine of the retractable skyline is believed to have ripped during its opening and closing on the 2018 anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, The Wall Street Journal reports.
— Curbed NY
"Some $30,000 by The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was spent this winter to repair the tear using black strips of Flex Tape, but the skylight at the massive transportation hub and shopping mall leaked again on May 5," Curbed summarizes the WSJ's account.
The Santiago Calatrava-designed—and not entirely uncontroversial—Oculus opened to the public on March 3, 2016 and has had repeated leaking issues during construction.
9 Comments
Couldn't have been real Flex Tape!
one and done.
Lol
what a surprise
it’s very misleading to say the oculus was 3.9 billion — when that cost includes complex underground tunneling, infrastructure repair from 9/11 and even Sandy damage and delays. Basically the same Calatrava building in Milwaukee cost 140m in private funds — while another tiny station in NYC ran at 1.4B.
Very telling that media and politicians use architecture to scapegoat their own incompetence ... like the NYT arch critic who loved the building until it became a convenient punching bag. Everyone loves a leaking architecture story because it reveals the failure of.... who exactly?
Granted, but in NYC you do have to add a billion or so for payoffs and kickbacks.
failure of ego, that's what it is. just a humbling.
'"Everyone loves a leaking architecture story because it reveals the failure of.... who exactly?"
Uh, the architect, most likely.
See final roster of defendants for complete list of "failures."
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