As
Process
Starts for a
New UN
Building,
Would It
Provide More
or Less
Access?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 2 --
Not unlike a
Friday
afternoon
document dump,
the first
public hearing
about the UN's
proposed new
building to
take
over the
Robert Moses
Playground
south of 42nd
Street was
held on
September 24.
It was the
first day of
the
just-concluded
General
Debate.
President Barack
Obama,
pre-shutdown,
spoke that
day, just
after Brazil's
Dilma Rousseff
slammed US
spying.
At
the very time
of the public
hearing, UK
foreign
secretary
William
Hague and UN
Sexual
Violence in
Conflict envoy
Bangura held a
stakeout.
Inner City
Press attended
that, asking
about 135
rapes in
Minova by the
UN's partners
in the
Congolese Army.
Video
here, from
Minute 7:22.
But now, this
report.
The
building would
be 36 stories
tall,
connected to
the existing
Secretariat
Building by a
tunnel. It
would be
developed by
the UN
Development
Corporation,
which did One
UN Plaza
(where Iran's
Hassan
Rouhani held
his press
conference
last week) and
the UNICEF
building.
The
architecture
of the so-called
UN Consolidated
Building, by
FXFOWLE and
Japanese
architect
Fumihiko Maki,
is
described as
drab. There
is, not
surprisingly,
local
opposition to
the loss of
the
playground. A
Wikileaked
cable from
then-US
Ambassador
Susan Rice
about the
underlying
security
issues is
online,
here.
Security
can
go overboard.
Witness for
example the
unceremonious
ripping-out
on 44th Street
and 47th
Street this
week of the
CitiBike racks
installed just
months
earlier. The
heads of state
are gone, but
the
bikes and even
racks aren't
back. (Click
here for
Inner City
Press
tweeted
photograph,
night of
October 1.)
The
current $2
billion
renovation of
the existing
UN is still
not
complete; the
General
Debate was
held in a
temporary
building with
no
media seats,
no nearby
stakeout, and
little access.
Would this
proposed new
building offer
more access?
That is among
the questions
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
@FUNCA_info
will be
asking.
The
City's ULURP
process can
take some
time; there is
also the
certainty
of a new
Mayor, and new
City Council
speaker,
coming in.
Watch this
site.
, 
