UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday proposed an accelerated plan to renovate the UN's headquarters overlooking New York's East River that would complete the overhaul by 2013.
The proposal calls for the 39-story glass-and-steel Secretariat building to be completely emptied. The current plan calls for the renovations to be carried out several floors at a time, from top to bottom, and for the overhaul to be completed by mid-2016.
Last December, the General Assembly finally gave a green light to start renovating the UN headquarters complex, which has not had a major overhaul in its 55-year existence and now violates safety and fire codes.
A report in July from the UN Board of Auditors said the US$1.9 billion renovation project is at least US$148 million over budget -- before any work on the landmark building has begun.
In Friday's report, Ban endorsed the accelerated strategy and said he would ensure that the overall project sticks to the US$1.9 billion budget. He asked the General Assembly to appropriate US$652 million for next year and US$341 million for 2009.
Under the accelerated plan, the Secretariat building would be renovated in three years instead of six years starting in early 2009 and the General Assembly building in two years instead of two-and-a-half years starting in mid-2011. The plan still calls for the construction of a temporary conference building on the UN's north lawn early next year.
Ban said emptying the Secretariat building would mean almost 2,600 staff members would have to be moved elsewhere, instead of only 1,100. The UN has already leased some office space, but will need to find space for 1,500 additional staffers and is already looking in midtown and lower Manhattan, he said.
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