Over budget Homeland Security headquarters project may be canceled

A massive new headquarters for the Department of Homeland Security is more than $1.5 billion over budget, 11 years behind schedule, and may never be completed.

When it was first proposed, the development was said to be critical for national security and the revitalization of Southeast Washington. The project on the grounds of the former St. Elizabeth’s Hospital would centralize the department’s operations. More than 50 historic buildings would be renovated and new ones erected.

Under the original plan, the complex was scheduled to be finished as early as this year for less than $3 billion. But only a Coast Guard building has been completed, with the rest of the grounds remaining undeveloped. The budget has inflated to $4.5 billion, with completion pushed back to 2026.

Neither Congressional Republicans nor Democrats have given the project much support, and the Obama Administration hasn’t made the project a priority, the Washington Post reported.

A revised administration plan with anticipated completion in 2026 was given to Congress last year, requiring about $280 million a year. It got only $190 million in 2014.

(http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/planned-homeland-security-headquarters-long-delayed-and-over-budget-now-in-doubt/2014/05/20/d0df2580-dc42-11e3-8009-71de85b9c527_story.html)

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.