Sciame chops $500m from cost of memorial.

Employing what he called "traditional value engineering," builder Frank Sciame last week revealed his plan to chop nearly half a billion dollars off the price tag of the Michael Arad-designed World Trade Center memorial.

The new $510 million memorial plan reduces the size of underground museum galleries and moves the names of the 2,979 victims of September 11th from a subterranean gallery to a grade-level display around the two "voids." Many of the original features of Arad's "Reflecting Absence," including the project's signature waterfalls, will be retained. Plans for a landscaped memorial plaza featuring rows of trees and granite-clad pathways were left untouched.

"We have something now that remains consistent with Michael Arad's vision for the project that is more in line with the initial budget," Sciame said. "It certainly won't please every one, but there has been an attempt made to please as many people as possible."

The new plan eliminates nearly 50,000 s/f of below-grade gallery space and reduces the number of entrances to the site from two to one housed within the ground-level Visitor Orientation and Education Center.

Sciame, a well-known New York builder and CEO of FJ Sciame Construction Company, said that all options were on the table when Governor George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg charged him with the task of pulling down .the cost of the memorial project from $973 million. Sciame said the waterfalls were kept despite being one of the projects most expensive elements because such a move "was thought to be wrong." Also, plans for the memorial plaza and its costly granite pathways were untouched to stay in the spirit of the original designs.

"This is going to be one of the world's great plazas and it will look that way. It will look like it's built to last forever," Sciame said. "I think it's what the world expects."

For his part, memorial designer Michael Arad was a bit less enthusiastic about changes to his plans, calling the cuts "painful."

"The most significant change is the loss of the underground memorial galleries that surrounded those pools," Arad said in a statement. "This change is the result of a difficult process that addressed the costs of this important endeavor. While I am disappointed by this change, I recognize the imperative to move forward and begin construction of the memorial as soon as possible."

Construction of the memorial site is slated to begin this summer. Officials hope to have the project completed by September 11, 2009--a tight turnaround for the massive project. Despite the time crunch, Sciame says he thinks the project can be ready on time.

"We have some amazing CM's (Construction Managers) and some great workers in this city," he said.

"They realize what's a stake and once they get into it I think you'll be surprised by how fast the work goes."