UN yet to find answer to housing crisis

By Mark Turner 
October 13, 2005
Financial Times
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/6db818d8-3b86-11da-b7bc-00000e2511c8.html
Wanted: visionary philanthropists and generous property moguls to help troubled international organisation revamp decaying architectural wonder in the heart of New York.
Louis Fritz Reuter, the new head of United Nations efforts to bring its celebrated headquarters up to modern standards, yesterday admitted he was still struggling to find a suitable location in which to house staff while renovation work took place.
Nothing is being ruled out, he asserted. We'll go anywhere - boats, islands, tents. Ideas raised at a recent brainstorming session included docking a cruise ship in the East River, or taking up residence on Governor's Island.
Earlier this year New York State authorities in effect quashed plans for the UN Development Corporation to build a temporary home on the Robert Moses playground, one block to the south. A frantic search for alternative accommodation ensued. But commercial rents have ranged from $400m to $475m, four times the original projected cost.
The total project cost had until recently been placed at $1.04bn but Mr Reuter warned that unless clever solutions were found it could reach as much as $1.5bn. Furthermore, the rate of yearly construction cost increases in New York had also recently risen, he said. The US has offered to loan the UN $1.2bn at an interest rate of 5.35 per cent, over 30 years.
Mr Reuter yesterday described the collapse of the Robert Moses plan as a red card tackle, which took us out by our legs. He hopes a new site can be identified and leased by next April.
Other countries, such as Germany, have hinted that if the US does not want the UN they could provide a new home. But given the prohibitive cost of moving all the attendant missions and uprooting UN staff, that is not a popular option.
That said, there have been suggestions that some functions in UN headquarters could be moved overseas. Mr Reuter, an architect himself, praised the layout of the Turtle Bay headquarters, built in 1949-1950, as crucial to the organisation's success. These spaces have been very effective in making people collaborate and work together, he said.
The site was bought with an $8.5m donation by John D. Rockefeller Jr.