New Haven Independent

Posted by: facChek | June 20, 2008 12:18 PM

This delay is the first of many violations of the contract between Becker & Becker and the city, that we will see. It represents a "failure to perform" covenant of the contract. In addition, this delay is a violation of the project Schedule (2) progress deadline two: Construction Drawings. A new construction manager usually results in increased cost to the project.

What's really going on Bialecki??

Posted by: TrueBlueCT | June 20, 2008 12:58 PM

Any update on the promised downtown grocery store, (which is to be located at 360 State/Shartenburg)?

I hope it doesn't prove to be a chimera.

Posted by: jdavis | June 20, 2008 1:46 PM

who cares? the building still looks like crap!
seriously, could it look any more similar to the Bank of America building right behind it? our city already has to put up with that ugly design once, why would we put ourselves through two of them?

Posted by: Ben | June 20, 2008 3:12 PM

This project is doomed by union labor so there's no need to worry about the poor design.
Have you ever heard of Fusco backing out of a deal like this?

Posted by: robn | June 20, 2008 5:10 PM

Fiasco. Balanced against projected tax revenue (if any), and the city's adoption of the parking burden how much will the city gain or lose from this development? Props to Jdavis who has correctly identified the aesthetic fiasco.

Posted by: -fairhavener- | June 20, 2008 5:54 PM

Poor design! In order for something to be of poor design it actually had to be designed in the first place. This building is nothing more than a carbon copy of crap. It is an embarrassment to architecture and human culture.

Posted by: design | June 20, 2008 6:08 PM

Why not hire Cesar Pelli to collaborate? He is the world's preeminent designer of towers (though Nouvel recently gave him a run for his money) and his office is right down the street.

Posted by: honestpolitics | June 20, 2008 9:48 PM

Ben I agree. And I want to know what happened, we have the right to know.

Posted by: Shill in City Hall | June 21, 2008 6:36 AM

The city contact is Tony Bialecki. The Deputy Director of Economic Development. The 10th square story also had Bialecki as city contact. Does this indicate that Kelly Murphy is being shown the door. Or is she too busy fighting law suits over the fire as she and DeStefano were planning their land grab while it was still burning.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | June 21, 2008 5:54 PM

I have heard that the new company is a good one. But as a tax payer and a person counting on this project to help the city I am a little nervous. Becker and Becker is a good company so I hope that they keep the public informed of what is happening and the progress.

Posted by: ElmCityResident | June 22, 2008 10:57 AM

The project has been slow to get started, but once it gets going, it's going to be fantastic for downtown and for that part of the city. Still hope it's going to be as green as the developer planned, though. I'm not worried about the design -- the article says it's changing, probably to keep costs down as construction prices are rising everywhere. Cost is probably also the reason behind the change in contractors. The developer's last project is super-green, and I almost moved there when I lived in Manhattan. I'm still optimistic.

Posted by: $h*tShow | June 23, 2008 10:06 AM

Apparently the new contractor did not ask for fuel escalations something that Fusco was rationally demanding.
Union Labor, no fuel escalation and shitty design...you'd think the property cost one dollar.

Posted by: Exiled Italian Shill | June 23, 2008 12:08 PM

Sure the city transfered the land for a dollar, but it got in the deal was much better than before. In the past development deals had a lot of recurring expense and by that I mean the city usually had to agree to be a tenant, give a tax abatement (see one financial plaza) or rent parking spaces. In this deal they transfer the land for a buck and reap the taxes.

I am concerned that Fusco is out but that is only a bump in the road. You will know there is a real problem if the developers need to comeback to the city of something else to make the numbers work.

On the isue of union labor you tell me what gets built in NH with the trades doing the work? Besides its quality work, NH residents get a piece and everyone is fat and happy.

No real problems here yet, but stayed tuned.

Posted by: Fat and happy | June 23, 2008 1:09 PM

Mary O'Leary's Register article notes that project engineers 'are looking to see where they can achieve savings, and the final design is likely to have "less bells and whistles."'

If you already feared that the building would be banal and badly detailed, a reinforcement of the worst of New Haven's corporate tower blocks which will nonetheless stay with us for decades to come, another out-of-scale New Haven superproject which has failed to learn the lessons of the city's finer grain, a blank multistory garage on what was once a vibrant city street, a façade with all the grace of the Chapel Street Mall Rite Aid, a missed opportunity, another nail in the coffin of State Street, if you suspected that the "high-end grocery store" was a PR ploy to get the project through approvals or that the initially touted environmental features were a classic example of greenwashing an unsustainable building type which will be a beast to demolish thirty years from now and which will drag down the character of Lower Chapel Street for decades before then, then wait till you see the final design once the "bells and whistles" are cut out.