Cost Overruns Stall Construction of
African-American Research Library
Eight months after the groundbreaking for a new African-American Research Library and Cultural Center, the Broward County (Fla.) Commission may soon approve the architectural plans. In October 1999 officials discovered structural design problems with the roof and building supports that had “the potential to be life-threatening,” Steve Hammond, who is coordinating the project for the county, said in the April 30 Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.
Additional architects brought in to rectify the design indicated that the facility may cost as much as $2.5 million over budget; cost overruns are being absorbed by scaling down aspects of the project such as eliminating the orchestra pit in the auditorium, building smaller restrooms, and substituting blocks and stucco on the exterior for pre-cast paneling.
Ironically, the newspaper story appeared as a $700,000 appropriation for the library was landing on Gov. Jeb Bush’s desk for signing. Last year Bush vetoed the bill, considering it another special-interest project that benefited no one outside the sponsoring legislator’s jurisdiction.
Posted May 8, 2000.
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