Times, UK

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 03 2001

London urged to give Dome to New York

BY ANDREW PIERCE AND CHRIS AYRES

THE troubleshooter brought in to rescue the Millennium Dome urged Tony Blair last night to give the structure to New York to conceal the horrors of the salvage operation at the World Trade Centre site.

Officials in the New York Mayor’s Department have already been in contact with engineers and designers of the Greenwich building for advice on how to build a dome.

The need to cover Ground Zero has been driven by the rapid onset of winter and complaints that the site is being turned into a ghoulish tourist attraction.

New Yorkers on their way to work in the financial district, and people who live near by, are upset that they have to confront the tragic scene each day. Salvage workers also need protection from the elements.

The dome proposal has already been discussed at senior levels in New York. Robert Adams, safety director for the Department of Design and Construction, told a city committee earlier this week that experts involved in the Dome project had been contacted.

David James, the businessman personally appointed by the Prime Minister to save the Dome when it was only 20 minutes from closure, said last night: “It would be a wonderful gesture on the part of the Government to give the Dome to the City of New York. It would be a marvellous means of seeing the Millennium Dome having a meaningful purpose to its life.”

Mr James was backed by Pierre-Yves Gerbeau, the Frenchman who was brought in to run the visitor attraction and whose enthusiasm for the Dome visitor attractionwas praised by the Prime Minister.

M Gerbeau said: “I lost a couple of friends in New York on September 11 and I think anything we can do to help should be considered. It would be a wonderful idea in principle to move the Dome to Ground Zero. I am not sure about the practicalities, but if it could be possible we should consider it.”

While there would be huge practical and logistical difficulties the Greenwich Dome, which is 325 metres in diameter, would comfortably fit the site of the twin towers tragedy.

Matthew Monahan, an assistant commissioner at New York’s Department of Design and Construction, said last night that the need for a dome was “less a consequence of the low temperatures and more to protect it from rain that freezes”. He said the city was concerned about the cost of a dome on the site and whether it could be built in time for winter. Temperatures in New York are still in the 70s, but are set to plunge over the next three weeks.

Mr Monohan added that a Ground Zero dome would be “more of a covering for the site than an enclosure” so that trucks and workers could get in and out easily. New York City officials have already come up with a nickname for the project, “Dome of the brave”.

The operation to move the Greenwich structure would cost around £40 million, provided practical problems could be overcome.

According to people involved in its design, it can be moved easily. But the complications would emerge trying to reposition it on the New York site. The Dome is held together by 12 giant pylons. A Dome source said: “The difficulty would be embedding those pylons in the wreckage of the towers. I’m not sure that it could be done.”

Since it closed on December 31, the Dome has proved almost as much of an embarrassment to the Government as when it was open.

The empty structure costs around £500,000 a month in insurance and security costs. At one stage, it was costing up to £1 million a month.

Ministers are desperate to off-load the controversial structure but almost a year after the doors were closed for the last time, no firm plan has been drawn up for its disposal.

One senior Whitehall source said last night: “We are desperate to get shot of the Dome and would look seriously at anything that could draw a line under the affair.

“I am not sure it is practically possible to shift the Dome to New York lock, stock and barrel, but if there was a way I am sure ministers would look sympathetically at it. We are market testing the entire 63-acre site and the adjoining 60 acres of land which is ear-marked for development. I think you will find a commercial buyer will end up with the site, even though New York sounds like a good idea on paper.”

Prime contenders to buy the site are the Welcome Trust, who want to use it to build a biomedical research laboratory. Another leading bidder was the Duke of Westminster’s property consortium, Grosvenor Estate Holdings, but reports last night suggested that the company, together with Stanhope, another property developer, was pulling out.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2001

Answers

If you know the history of the Dome, this proposal is absolutely hilarious.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2001