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A major blow for New Yorkers
Noted Architect Richard Rogers has withdrawn from the Jacob Javits Convention Center job, a commission that would have greatly expanded the New York convention center and transform it from the 18th ranked convention center in the nation into a world class meeting facility.
According to Warner Johnston a spokesperson for the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), the project’s backer, “the project has been scaled back from its original Pataki Administration concept.” The focus going forward will be more toward renovating the facility with perhaps a ‘modest expansion’.
“Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners- in full agreement with the ESDC and its joint venture partners, FXFowle Architects and A. Epstein and Sons International, Inc- believes that the present objectives are best served by the client working with a local team and has withdrawn from its role as lead designer”. FXFowle Architects will assume the role of lead architect for the project.
Rogers was selected for the Javits commission in 2005 after a rigorous worldwide search for an architect. Under Rogers, the building, which was originally designed by I.M. Pei architects in 1986, was to be expanded from a current 790,000 sq ft to 1.5 million sq ft. Sharon McHugh
US Correspondent
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