U.N. Reconsidering Plans To Build 35-Story 'Swing Space'
BY MEGHAN CLYNE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
April 6, 2005

Signs have emerged that the United Nations is reconsidering its plans to erect a 35-story swing space at a neighboring city park, with a senior U.N. official saying the world body is contemplating alternatives to the proposed construction.
The chief of staff to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Mark Malloch Brown, told The New York Sun last night that if the world body were to build the office tower at what is now the Robert Moses Playground, it would probably force a delay of at least two years in the renovation of U.N. headquarters, which officials hope to begin in 2007.
If the renovation is to proceed on the planned timetable, according to Mr. Malloch Brown, the world body would need to lease existing office space elsewhere.
We're looking for space to rent, primarily in Manhattan, the U.N. management chief, Catherine Bertini, told the Sun last night from Geneva.
Under plans approved by U.N. officials in 2002, the 900,000-square-foot swing space would house U.N. staff during the refurbishment of their current Turtle Bay facilities and eventually would serve as a consolidation space for U.N. offices scattered around the city. An article in the Los Angeles Times suggested yesterday that sticking to the plan for swing space would delay the start of the renovation by more than two years. Even if we got permission today, the paper quoted Ms. Bertini as saying, the building won't be ready until 2010.
Significant opposition to the project emerged from members of the Turtle Bay community, who expressed dismay at the potential loss of open recreational space in their neighborhood. They were joined by some state lawmakers, at a time when allegations of corruption centered on the U.N. oil-for-food program were snowballing. Legislation at Albany that would have begun the process of approving the project has been shelved since the Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, Republican of Rensselaer, refused to bring it to the floor in early December.
Whatever the fate of the planned swing space, the world body is still considering a new consolidation of its New York offices and is investigating several possible locations for it, officials said.
The Bloomberg administration has been a strong supporter of the Turtle Bay expansion plan, dispatching the mayor's sister, Marjorie Tiven, who is the city's commissioner for the United Nations, consular corps and protocol, to Albany to lobby for the project. A spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg, Edward Skyler, declined to comment last night.
Commenting on the U.N. rethinking of the planned building at the playground, one of the project's most vocal opponents in Albany, State Senator Martin Golden, Republican of Brooklyn, said: If Kofi Annan had stepped down, they could've had that approval and we could've been on to a new point in life.
The chairman of the United Nations Development Corporation, George Klein, said the city-state agency, which has been overseeing the project, has not been informed of any change in U.N. plans and expects a final decision to be made next month.
We want to look at what's cheapest and most cost-effective for U.N., Mr. Malloch Brown said, adding that a new U.N. building at Robert Moses Playground, used for swing space and then office consolidation, would be the most economical option.