It’s a $1 billion fixer-upper.
The Jacob Javits Convention Center, completed just 21 years ago as New York’s modern-day “crystal palace,” has deteriorated into a leaking mess that more aptly deserves the moniker “This Old Convention Center.”
But it will take more than a trio of intrepid handymen to fix this mess. More than 16,000 panes of glass have to be replaced and a roof that covers 16 acres has to be stripped down to its frame and rebuilt.
And like a home being renovated by a family living inside, the Javits must be rebuilt without interrupting its regular line-up of trade shows and conventions that make it among the busiest convention centers in the nation.
The biggest problem facing Javits starts at the top. High above the main exhibition floor, dozens of black tarps are strung up like diapers and fitted with tubes to drain rainwater into barrels scattered around the enormous room.
“The entire roof is going to have to be replaced, right down to the deck,” said Barbara Lampen, president of the Convention Center Development Corp.
“The roof has been a problem since the day it opened,” Lampen said of Javits, which was designed by the world-renowned architectural firm headed by I. M. Pei., who intended it to be a light-filled departure from convention centers of its day.
Lampen said engineers are working up a complete inventory of costs for the repairs, including new safety systems, carpeting in meeting rooms and overhauls of the center’s more than two dozen restrooms.
The estimated cost is roughly $850 million for construction and materials, $150 million for design and planning, and $600 million for a modest 80,000-square-foot expansion.
Shockingly, state officials say there was never a thorough analysis of the cost of renovating the center while it was slated for a major expansion that was canceled by Gov. Spitzer.
Lampen expects a detailed plan for the renovation work to be completed within nine months. The actual renovation won’t be done till 2012 or 2013.
Even though the project is just a renovation, Lampen said the center – which now resembles a black box because of the dark-tinted glass – will be dramatically different in appearance because of plans to switch to clear glass.
“It’s going to become what it was intended to be – a crystal palace,” she said.