Billion Dollar Maybe

The most current estimates have the World Trade Center memorial costing nearly $1 billion, or as the Times notes, the original price tag of the World Trade Center itself:

The projected cost of building the World Trade Center memorial complex at ground zero has soared to nearly $1 billion, according to the most authoritative estimate to date.

Rebuilding officials concede that the new price tag is breathtaking — “beyond reason” in the words of one member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation board — and it is sure to set off another battle over development at the 16-acre site, with calls to cut costs, scale back the design or even start over.

The foundation, which had planned to start construction in March, has already quietly broached the possibility with some victims’ families of moving important parts of the memorial out of the twin towers’ footprints to ground level.

Only two or three years ago, the problems faced by the memorial, the spiritual centerpiece of the site, would have been unimaginable. The underground complex, with its pools, waterfalls and galleries, was the product of a worldwide design competition that drew 5,201 entries and inspired tremendous public passion.

It was supposed to be immune to the controversies that had engulfed the commercial rebuilding at the site, with its completion assured by an outpouring of good will and open checkbooks. But fund-raising has lagged, with just $130 million raised from private contributions.

The new estimate, $972 million, would make this the most expensive memorial ever built in the United States. And that figure does not include the $80 million for a visitors’ center paid for by New York State. It is likely to draw unfavorable comparisons to the $182 million National World War II Memorial in Washington, which opened in 2004; the $29 million Oklahoma City National Memorial, which opened in 2000; or the $7 million Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, which opened in 1982.

The original World Trade Center itself cost $1 billion in the 1970’s, or about $3.7 billion in current dollars. Then again, everything at ground zero carries a big ticket, from the $478 million vehicle-screening center to the $2.2 billion PATH terminal.

As news of the cost trickles down, many are rethinking the scope of the memorial:

Knowing that the cost of the complex was becoming politically unpalatable, the foundation’s executive committee met on April 18 with representatives of some victims’ family groups, including Anthony Gardner, a leader of the Coalition of 9/11 Families, which has sued to block the memorial design, as well as Edith Lutnick, Patricia Riley and Sally Regenhard. In an attempt to cut costs and appease critics, the executives suggested broad changes to the design, according to three people who attended.

In the current design, the names of the victims would be inscribed 30 feet below street level, on a parapet in galleries surrounding underground pools within the footprints of the towers. Officials said that eliminating the galleries and moving the inscription of the names to plaza level would save money and resolve some security issues and perhaps assuage opponents.

“We’ve always made it clear to the foundation and to L.M.D.C. that we do not support this memorial as it stands now,” Mr. Gardner said yesterday, although he refused to discuss the April 18 meeting.