Say what you like about Donald Trump but the guy knows large buildings inside and out. he got to where he is today with this knowledge and here, in a rather lengthy speech, he lays out what he thinks about the proposed United Nations building remodel in NYC.
From the Democracy Project:
Rebuilding the U.N.: You're Fired!
Law professor Maimon Schwarzschild and I were email reminiscing this morning about our 1950's and 1960's idealism of the United Nations' mission and impressive building in New York.
I told Maimon that I was listening on the car radio to a speech by Donald Trump a few years ago, about the U.N.'s ripoff plans for reconstructing the U.N. building, and laughed so hard I almost crashed. It seems that Maimon wrote about the Trump speech and linked to its text and tape.
The Washington Times this month updated us on the U.N.'s building renovation. As Donald Trump would say, You're Fired! Or, should be, and would be, if anyone else but at the U.N.
The proposed $2 billion renovation of the United Nations headquarters building in New York is proceeding with little outside oversight or control.
Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, said cost estimates for the proposed five-year project have ballooned, while U.N. officials have yet to release basic audit, contracting and procurement data.
"If they don't want transparency, then they have something to hide," he said.
The entry then goes on to post the entire transcript of Mr. Trump's speech -- here are a few choice nuggets:
My involvement with the United Nations began with a letter, which I will give to the committee, from the Ambassador to the United Nations from Sweden. And it's a long letter, and a very beautifully written letter, and essentially, he read an article about the success of Trump World Tower, which is the building that I can show you, right here, which is, as you can see, very, very substantially taller than the United Nations, bigger than the United Nations.
And he read an article in the New York Times, saying that the building cost approximately $300 million dollars to build. So, he wrote me a letter, and ultimately called me, and said is it possible that that building cost $300 million dollars, because it just seems so much bigger, and so much better, and so much more expensive, and so much more luxurious. And how could you have done that for $300 million dollars, when, at that time, Senator, they were talking about $1.5 billion dollars to renovate the United Nations. And this was around December of 2000. And I said well, there's only two reasons. Either gross incompetence, or something far worse than that. And you know what the something is, and that's corruption. Because there's absolutely no way that that building could have cost $1.5 billion dollars to build.
And:
So, I looked at it, and I added up some of my costs, and for Trump World Tower, across the street, built not long ago, I spent approximately $258 a foot. It's the tallest building, tallest residential building in the world. $258.32 a foot. I have 871 thousand feet. It cost $225 million dollars to build. Now, anybody that says a building of renovation is more expensive than building a new building, doesn't know the business. Because you have a frame built. You have your foundations built. You have, in many cases, elevators that could be re-utilized in their entirety, but fixed. You have many, many components that can be used. And only a fool...it only costs a fool more money. I did the Grand Hyatt hotel from the old Commodore Hotel. I did Trump International Hotel and Tower from the old Gulf and Western building at 1 Central Park West, if you remember. I did the Trump Park Avenue Building from the Delmonico Hotel. I love doing renovation, because it costs you half. It doesn't cost you more.
Trump met with Kofi Annan and was connected with the UN's Project Manager for the remodel - a Mr. Conners:
I met with Mr. Conners. Mr. Conners didn't know the first thing about what he was doing. He didn't know whether or not the curtain wall was going to be new, old, and didn't even know what a curtain wall was. I said, "What are you going to be doing with the curtain wall?"
He said, "What is a curtain wall?" Now, he was in charge of the project. The curtain wall is the skin of the building.
I said, "Will it be new or old?"
He said, "I don't know."
I said, "Are you using New York Steam? Or are you using a new boiler system?"
He said, "I don't know what New York Steam is." It's a very common form of heating in the building. He had no clue. And the price, at that time, was $1.5 billion dollars. I mean, I don't know why it came down, because the world has gone up. But it came down. That was in the year, approximately 2000-2001. So he didn't have a clue. I don't know if he's still there. Perhaps he is. The one thing I found him very, very good at, is that he didn't want to lose control of this project. He was a man that absolutely wanted to keep control of the project, but he didn't have even the slightest inkling of what it was all about. Knew nothing about it. He then told me that he may move people out. He may not move people out. He didn't know. He thought he might. He wasn't sure. He had no...he just didn't know.
Two more:
But the fact is that the United Nations building, with all of its buildings, with its parking, should be completed, and I mean completed at a cost of $700 million dollars. And it's my opinion that it will not be completed for less than three to three and a half billion dollars. They don't know what they're getting into. And please remember this, as somebody that's probably built as much as anybody my age anywhere. I don't know of anybody that's built more. If you don't have a complete set of plans and specifications, there is no way you can build. And from what I understand, they don't even have an architect.
And he concludes with:
So, that's it. Congratulations. You've got yourself a mess on your hands.
It is well worth reading the entire thing -- Trump knows what he is talking about and he is smelling the strong stench of corruption and incompetence. For the United Nations, this does not surprise me at all...
