2007.11.27: November 27, 2007: Headlines: COS - Colombia: Architecture: United Nations: International Herald Tribune: Michael Adlerstein, architect of the UN renovation says "It will be done right."

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Colombia: Special Report: Architect and Colombia RPCV Michael Adlerstein: 2007.10.28: October 28, 2007: Headlines: COS - Colombia: Architecture: United Nations: BBC: Michael Adlerstein says the UN building "cannot function much longer in its present state" : 2007.11.27: November 27, 2007: Headlines: COS - Colombia: Architecture: United Nations: International Herald Tribune: Michael Adlerstein, architect of the UN renovation says "It will be done right."

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Michael Adlerstein, architect of the UN renovation says "It will be done right."

Michael Adlerstein, architect of the UN renovation says It will be done right.

Adlerstein is unfazed by the problems that have beset past plans. "I took the job because it's an ideal challenge for an architect at this point in my career," he said. "It's an iconic building of great stature in the world, you can show a picture of this building to people in remote, rural locations in the world and everyone will know it." While the famous exteriors will be unchanged, the insides will be brought up to 21st-century standards of efficiency and security and reconfigured to consume 40 percent less energy. The greenish glass curtain wall will be removed and replaced by a heavily laminated one that appears identical but is far stronger and will be able to withstand the blast in the event of a bomb attack on the building. Energy saving additions include sensors that turn off lights in unoccupied rooms and solar power systems. "Ten years from now there will be no way to tell that the UN was renovated unless you look at the Con Ed bill," Adlerstein said. Architect Michael Adlerstein served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia, and is executive director of the $1.9 billion United Nations renovation project.

Michael Adlerstein, architect of the UN renovation says "It will be done right."

UN seeks office space as overhaul plans take shape

By Warren Hoge

Published: November 27, 2007


UNITED NATIONS, New York: Cruise ships, barges, islands, tent settlements, a 30-story annex, a Wal-Mart-sized provisional building, even Brooklyn.

All of them have been proposed by increasingly desperate United Nations officials as the place to locate thousands of staff and delegates while the organization's stylishly timeless but dangerously antiquated 39-story headquarters undergoes refurbishment.

This decade-long search has ended now with a decision to begin a five-year, $1.876 billion renovation of the complex this spring and to house the 2,600 people who must move out in rented space in Manhattan, across the East River in Long Island City and a temporary conference building on the United Nations campus.

The 55-year-old steel and glass Secretariat tower and its companion General Assembly hall, sleek and shapely icons of post war modernism, still look smashing from the outside, but their interiors are not wearing their years as well.

Periodic surveys have cited asbestos insulation, lead paint, outmoded plumbing and electric systems, lack of sprinklers, frequent power shutdowns and leaking roofs.

These failings are serious ones, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg underlined in October by demanding that the organization immediately improve its fire safety plans with sprinklers, smoke detectors and exit signs or he would end visits by students to the building and alert the public to the danger. The United Nations has pledged to make the adjustments in the coming months.

But there are also quaint reminders of just how dated the installation is.

Many of the companies that made the internal machinery are now out of business, so the United Nations has its own shop to make replacement parts, and the originals are prized by industrial museums.

On the 28th floor is a padlocked room housing electrical transformers with a "High Voltage" warning sign on its door that advises, "In case of necessity, call MUrray Hill 2-4477." Name telephone exchanges were abandoned in New York three decades ago.

The elaborate rehabilitation plan, which the General Assembly is expected to approve shortly, is the third in a decade and like many other urgencies on the United Nations agenda, the mission has met with repeated delays.

Hesham Mohamed Eman Afifi, an Egyptian diplomat, told budget committee hearings last month that the only element of the project that had stayed on time was the periodic bill received by member states.

The first plan was halted in 2005 when the New York state legislature, angry at the anti-Israel bias of many UN delegations, diplomats' unpaid parking tickets and mismanagement of the oil-for-food program, refused to pass enabling legislation to construct a new annex on an underused playground next door.

The second was abandoned a year later after its architect, Louis Frederick Reuter 4th, a veteran of large project management in New York, tired of fighting persistent objections from the U.S. Congress and United Nations bureaucrats and resigned.

The author of the new plan is Michael Adlerstein, 62, an affable former National Park Service architect involved in the preservations of Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, the New York Botanical Garden and the Taj Mahal and a man with 20 years of experience dealing with lawmakers in Washington.

"I think there is now a general tone that I have found of total support to get this thing done," he said. "I've been dealing with many of the member states on a one-to-one basis - the U.S. one of them - and I have found nothing but support."

Adlerstein is unfazed by the problems that have beset past plans.

"I took the job because it's an ideal challenge for an architect at this point in my career," he said. "It's an iconic building of great stature in the world, you can show a picture of this building to people in remote, rural locations in the world and everyone will know it."

While the famous exteriors will be unchanged, the insides will be brought up to 21st-century standards of efficiency and security and reconfigured to consume 40 percent less energy.

The greenish glass curtain wall will be removed and replaced by a heavily laminated one that appears identical but is far stronger and will be able to withstand the blast in the event of a bomb attack on the building.

Energy saving additions include sensors that turn off lights in unoccupied rooms and solar power systems.

"Ten years from now there will be no way to tell that the UN was renovated unless you look at the Con Ed bill," Adlerstein said.

He said that he was well aware of the bribery scandals that have scarred the reputation of the United Nations procurement department but that Skanska, the Swedish company that is the construction manager, and his own people would make sure nothing like that occurred again.

"Skanska has its audits, we have our own audits, there are several different levels of oversight to make sure this is done right," he said. "It will be done right. There's too much money at risk here not to do it right."

The cost of the project will be borne by the 192 members states in supplementary annual dues over the five-year period, with the United States responsible for 22 percent, or $413 million.

Thus far the United Nations has leased office floors in a building at 305 East 46th Street and is negotiating for additional space nearby and in Lower Manhattan and Long Island City.




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Story Source: International Herald Tribune

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Colombia; Architecture; United Nations

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