Study Finds Publicly-Funded Libraries and Museums Too Expensive, Too Slow To Build

It's just a one-story building, but the Mariners Harbor Library on Staten Island took nearly eight years to move from the drawing board to opening day in 2013. Across town in the Bronx, the Kingsbridge Library that opened in 2011 took more than nine years to build. The cost per square foot was more than double what developers pay, on average, to build new office buildings in New York.

Those are two examples of a city-supervised construction process which a new study describes as “broken.” The report, a collaboration between the Center for an Urban Future and the Citizens Budget Commission, examines 144 cultural projects completed between fiscal years 2010 and 2014, and supervised by the New York City Department of Design and Construction. The authors find an array of bureaucratic hurdles resulting in cost overruns and long delays.

In a statement to WNYC, Ian Michaels, a DDC spokesman, said the agency is aware of some of the problems raised in the report, and has already taken steps in response.

“Since 2014, DDC has reduced its procurement cycle by 25% from an average of one year to an average of nine months,” Michaels wrote in an email. “Design durations for DDC Public Buildings projects that started after July 1, 2014 and have finished has been reduced by around 50%. Construction durations for DDC Public Buildings projects that started after July 1, 2014 and have finished has been reduced by around 40%.”