Build What You Can Afford

Waterfalls intact, work is set to begin next month on the World Trade Center memorial, its cost reduced to just under $700 million:

Work on the foundation of the World Trade Center Memorial should begin early next month under the revised design plan released yesterday, officials said.

The plan reflects the recommendations of building consultant Frank Sciame, who was asked by Gov. Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg to find ways to halve the nearly $1 billion cost of the original design.

As reported by the Daily News on Friday, Sciame’s $500 million plan would move displays of victims’ names aboveground and reduce gallery and museum space belowground — “maybe as much as 50,000” square feet, he said yesterday.

The Memorial Museum would be consolidated on the site’s bedrock level instead of on multiple levels.

At the same time, the revised plan preserves signature features of the original, including a tree-filled plaza and waterfalls feeding two sunken pools where the twin towers stood.

“What Frank has come back with are relatively minor changes that will reduce the cost dramatically,” Bloomberg said. “Some people won’t like those changes, but we have to look at this and say, ‘You can build what you can afford.'”