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New Seattle Library Construction Lags, But Enthusiasm RemainsOriginally scheduled for completion in October 2003, Seattle’s new central library, designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, has experienced significant delays and cost overruns that are the subject of a dispute with the contractors. The construction team, having already missed a revised deadline in January, has now tentatively scheduled an opening in late May, although Library Director Deborah Jacobs cautions that the timing could slip once again. “It will open when it opens,” she said in the January 29 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The library and the contractor, Hoffman Construction, have been meeting since last summer with a dispute resolution board, which recommended a reduction in the additional costs incurred from Hoffman’s initial claim of $16.9 million to $8.4 million. The city council is reluctant to pay for this out of the general fund and insists that the library work out the extra costs with Hoffman and its subcontractors. The new library’s $165.5-million capital budget was funded in part by a bond measure, approved by Seattle voters in 1998. Despite the dispute, the library staff is eager to see its 355,000-square-foot, 15-story facility open its doors. “We are so incredibly excited about this building. I took a couple of people through it last week,” Jacobs said. “No one could have imagined how beautiful and magnificent and obviously functional it was going to be on the inside.” Posted January 30, 2004. |
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