$421 Million New York Courthouse Falling Apart After 14 Years
In 2008, New York opened a new state-of-the-art courthouse in the Bronx, named the Bronx Hall of Justice, to help deal with a growing caseload. After just 14 years, it’s already falling apart, according to an investigation by The City, a NYC news outlet.
When the project was announced more 20 years ago by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani and then-New York Gov. George Pataki, it was supposed to open in 2005, and cost $325 million, The City reported.
The project opened after a three-year delay, and cost of $421 million, 30 percent more than projected.
The firm that was responsible for the construction, the Vinoly Group, has been sued by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York for allegedly shoddy construction on an athletic facility at Brooklyn College. It also designed a luxury condominium building in Manhattan that an outside consulting firm levied allegations of “over 1,500 individual construction and design defects,” according to The City.
Unfortunately, the same firm was a vendor on the Bronx Hall of Justice.
Before it was even opened, New York had to hire another firm for post-construction work and remediation. Now, floors are collapsing, lower levels are flooding, and windows are shattering, according to the report. Someone dropped a lit cigarette into a ventilation grate and started a fire, but the faulty fire alarm was disabled, allowing the fire to spread, according to The City. On the third level, roof leaks have rendered the floor unusable.
The building is in such poor condition that the city Department of Buildings has yet to grant it a final certificate of occupancy despite it being open for 14 years. Instead, it has been issuing temporary permits until minor code violations were fixed.
Taxpayers were sold a bill of goods that this new courthouse would help make the justice system more efficient. Instead, it has become an endless sinkhole for their tax dollars.
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