U.N. headquarters to get $1B makeover

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That's a lot of money!

Friday, July 27, 2007

U.N. headquarters to get $1B makeover

The Associated Press

The aging United Nations headquarters overlooking New York’s East River is set to undergo a $1 billion makeover, the first-ever overhaul of the landmarked but leaking complex overlooking the East River.

Alicia Barcena, U.N. undersecretary general for management, said the seven-year project will be conducted in three phases, with about 1,000 workers temporarily relocated to buildings in Manhattan and Queens during each phase. Work will begin in early 2008.

For two years — between 2009 and 2011 — the General Assembly will be housed a block away from headquarters on East 45th Street. The U.N. Secretary-General will remain at headquarters but in temporary quarters.

“The signing of this agreement is a major step in making the U.N. headquarters a safer, healthier and more energy-efficient place for all of us who work here,” Barcena said at a news conference Friday. “It will make it safer for hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit every year.”

A Swedish-owned construction firm, Skanska AB, won a competitive bid to conduct the preconstruction phase of the project, Barcena said. Skanska will review the current design drawings and provide a guaranteed maximum price to perform the construction before the United Nations makes a decision to award the final construction contract, Barcena said.

Barcena was accompanied at the news conference by Michael Alderstein, executive director of the construction project.

Alderstein, an architect, managed the renovation of the Taj Mahal, Ellis Island, the New York Botanical Garden.

“It’s the United Nations,” Alderstein said when asked why he would want to head such a daunting project. “It’s the most difficult project, in my view, in the world,” Alderstein said.

Built in 1950, the landmark U.N. Secretariat building and its neighboring Conference and General Assembly buildings, built in 1951 and 1952, are packed with toxic asbestos, have leaking roofs and erratic heating and cooling systems and lack fire sprinklers. The sprawling 39-story glass-and-steel complex has not seen a major overhaul since it was built.

The renovation involves a complete overhaul, covering six buildings with total floor space of 2.6 million square feet on 17 acres.

One goal of the renovation is to make the buildings more energy efficient. The Secretariat building alone, where U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s office is located, wastes as much as 25 percent of the heat pumped into it in the winter.

Skanska Chief Executive Stuart Graham said his company was “extremely honored to partner with the United Nations to help them create a modern and environmentally sound headquarters for its membership and staff.”

Skanska, which has made a strong push into the U.S. construction market in the past few years — building the open-air stadium for the football Jets and Giants in New Jersey — said the project is its largest ever in the U.S. and one of its top three worldwide.

Skanska spokesman Peter Gimbe said the project was “internationally prestigious,” helping the company cement its position both in the tough New York market and worldwide.

“This will be a reference project for us across the globe. The U.N. headquarters is probably one of the most famous buildings in the world,” he said.