Calatrava's Wings Get Clipped

Proposed World Trade Center transit station, Santiago Calatrava / Photo: SANTIAGO CALATRAVA LLC

You could see this coming for a while. Delays and cost overruns at the World Trade Center site in New York have meant a continuing process of chipping away at the design proposals for Ground Zero. Earlier ths week the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which largely controls the site, admitted that work was way behind schedule and over budget for just about every element, including the 9/11 Memorial, which is no longer expected to be ready by 2011, the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

Now we learn that what was supposed to be a retractable roof on Santiago Calatrava's WTC transit terminal will no longer be designed to move. Too expensive.

Maybe they should just throw up a couple of big box stores and call it a day.