The city of Cincinnati "has a lot more in common" with
Seattle than just Ken Griffey Jr., as both cities have
sports stadiums that "cost tens of millions of dollars more
than expected," according to Dan Klepal of the CINCINNATI
ENQUIRER. Another connection between the two cities is that
both Paul Brown Stadium and Safeco Field were designed by
WA-based NBBJ Architects. Safeco Field, which was completed
last summer, "came in" $100M over budget and was completed
at a final cost of over $500M. It was revealed this week
that Paul Brown Stadium is $35-45M over budget, and the
figures "could continue to grow." In both cases, "changes
to the design of the stadiums during construction, along
with a fast-track building schedule, are being blamed for
the added expense." Some observers have said that NBBJ
"should take a lion's share of the responsibility."
Mariners Dir of Public Information Rebecca Hale, on NBBJ:
"We have a lot of concerns about uncompleted drawings and
bid packages going out before the designs were finished.
There were a lot of design changes and modifications that
had to be made while we were building." Another criticism
of NBBJ is that it took construction bids before completing
the design of Paul Brown Stadium. But Dennis Forsyth, head
of NBBJ's stadium design team for Safeco Field, said that
it's "common for construction on sports stadiums to begin
without finalized designs." Forsyth: "You'll find that
often the buildings aren't even half designed when you start
construction because everyone wants to be in the stadium as
quickly as possible. You build it ... and then a thousand
little things change ... And they all add up. The question
becomes: Whose fault are the changes?" (CIN ENQUIRER, 2/18).
