Now that 1 World Trade Center has opened for business, more attention will go to another building with conspicuous civic purposes—the Oculus pavilion at the World Trade Center Transportation Hub.
"With its long steel wings poised sinuously above the National September 11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub has finally assumed its full astonishing form, more than a decade after it was conceived," writes David W. Dunlap to commence an expose about "one of the most expensive and most delayed train stations ever built."
As the total cost for the Santiago Calatrava-designed hub approaches $4 billion (with $655 million of that total coming from administrative costs), even the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has expressed his doubts about the choice to build such an expensive facility. Patrick J. Foye is quoted in the story, speaking in October: " We would not today prioritize spending $3.7 billion on the transit hub over other significant infrastructure needs…"
The article includes details on the development of the hub as well as animated graphics and a time-lapse of construction. The building, also known as the "Calatrasaurus" has already provoked scathing reviews.
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