UN headquarters gets $2B face-lift

The whir of saws and the buzz of drills flood buildings better accustomed to the speeches of world leaders as the United Nations' iconic headquarters in Manhattan gets a makeover.

Gone are the pneumatic tubes and the toxic asbestos. And blast-proof panes are replacing the original windows -- addressing terrorism concerns in a post-9/11 world.

The first major renovation of the 60-year-old headquarters has been slowed by extra security measures, said architect Michael Adlerstein, the project's executive director and a UN assistant secretary-general. The final cost will be nearly $2 billion -- about 4 percent over the original budget.

Terrorists have increasingly targeted UN compounds, with 12 staff members fatally injured in August by a car bomb at the compound in Abuja, Nigeria. Top envoy Sergio Vieira del Mello was among 21 people killed in a 2003 attack on the organization's Baghdad complex.

While the changes at the Manhattan headquarters are welcome, the renovation has required more than a little diplomacy.

The UN "is far more complicated than any organization I've worked with," acknowledged Adlerstein, who also oversaw the restoration of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island for the United States in the 1980s.

There have been conflicts. Several times last year, members of the powerful Security Council asked workers to stop demolition in the basement because the banging was interrupting their meetings.

And the UN Staff Union complained early on that the modernization project broke a promise not to begin asbestos abatement until all employees had been moved.

UN employees also say that they have not been consulted about the construction, and oppose plans to eliminate most private offices in favor of shared open working spaces.

"I'm sure it's going to look nice, but I'm not sure if the working conditions will be ideal," said union president Barbara Tavora-Jainchill. "It all goes back to the fact that we are not being fully informed."

About 3,000 UN staffers work in temporary office space around Manhattan. Another 2,000 remain on the 17-acre site, including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other senior officials, who work in a temporary building.

Adlerstein said all work should be completed before the UN General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting in September 2014.

The conference building housing the Security Council is expected to be the first part of the project to partially reopen, with the council returning to its quarters early next year.

Planners have decided to respect the UN compound's original architecture of the 1950s, dominated by the Secretariat building, a rectangle of white stone and green glass that 20th century critic and historian Lewis Mumford described as "fairylike in its cold austerity."