Hunters Point Library (QueensPost January 2018)
July 27, 2018 By Christian Murray
The Hunters Point Library will not open until the summer of 2019 as the project continues to be besieged by construction delays.
The city agency in charge of overseeing the construction estimates that the library will be completed by the end of the year, with the Queens Library taking an additional three to six months to get it ready for opening.
The 22,000-square foot library, which has been under construction since 2015, was expected to open in the first half of 2017. However, between the complex design and issues with the general contractor it continues to be behind schedule.
The major source of the delays can be attributed to the performance of the general contractor, Triton Structural, according to Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer. “The contractor has essentially defaulted on the project.”
“The subcontractors were not getting paid and stopped work,” Van Bramer said. He said that the mayor’s office considered getting rid of Triton but decided against it because it could have delayed the project another two years.
Van Bramer said that the mayor has put pressure on the financial backers of Triton and the subcontractors are now being paid and the work is continuing.
Triton could not be reached for comment.
Van Bramer said that Laura Anglin, the deputy mayor of operations, has assured him that the project is a mayoral priority and the project is on track.
The Department of Design and Construction, which oversees Triton, issued a statement about the delays.
“The contractor has had difficulty performing certain parts of the construction but we’re working with them very closely to help them complete the project,” the agency said. “The DDC is working with Queens Library to open the new Hunters Point Library as quickly as possible.”
The construction of the library has been riddled with delays since its inception.
In the first half of 2017, there were problems getting specialized glass shipped in from Europe due to labor strikes in Spain. Upon its arrival there were delays installing it.
The initial groundbreaking was expected to take place in 2013 but was delayed until 2015. The groundbreaking was pushed back since the city couldn’t find a contractor willing to do the job at the project’s budget. The city then went back and simplified the design to reduce the cost.
The general contractor that bid and won the contract was Triton.
“They were the lowest bidder for the work and they have failed utterly and completely,” Van Bramer said.
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41 Comments
The people down voting the comments on this atrocious mishandling of taxpayer money are likely union s$$m looking to retain their stronghold on city projects. Keep it competitive. Put this project to bid in the private sector and include non-union contractors in the mix. That’ll learn ’em!
Upset about this latest delay? Please sign the petition to demand accountability and action from our civic leaders.
https://www.change.org/p/bill-de-blasio-hunters-point-library-action-accountability
By the way, the roof already leaking, faulty concrete poured, the design flaws all over the place. Heavy winds during storms will pound the Spanish glass, watch out for the first big storm once completed. and look up from the second level.
They did not need this eyesore in the middle of Gantry Park, ugliest building I’ve ever seen, Soviet Style architecture – site would have made a great Recreation Center with an indoor pool, basketball courts, ice hockey rink and programs for kids, seniors and the general public. Once again JVB blew it!!!
>Soviet Style architecture
Wait, did the Trump Organization build this?
The FAKE MRLIC wrote the July 30, 2018 comment on Trump building the Library.
they can build and open phase II of Hunters Pt Park in less than a year and this has taken 4+ years and not even done – pathetic.
A city development project that is Over Budget & Behind Schedule. SHOCKING!!!
Triton, ncluding the individuals who run it, should be banned from City projects for 5 years. This is unacceptable.
This behemot is unsightly from street level (walking, jogging, driving along Center Blvd or through the park). Its almost as ugly as the temporary (read decade-old) park staff barracks at its base. Both need to go.
NB – it doesn’t obstruct my view at all as I live 4+ blocks away, and face a different direction a few hundred feet above its roofline.
Maybe whoever’s mis-managing this project, finds time and money in their cooked budget for a planned implosion. This way, at least we’d get a rubble rock garden or more green space. Both much better uses of the land and taxpayer money.
The library is never opening. It is just an elaborate practical joke.
The REAL MRLIC wrote the July 27th comment, The FAKE MRLIC wrote the July 27, comment on I’ll be know how to read by then??????My take on this is why do we need “IMPORTED GLASS”?
Could you two just get a room please?
I would, but that would require building another luxury condo
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/how-can-it-take-15-years-and-usd32m-to-build-a-local-library.html
“Issues with the complex design.”
The Empire State building went up in 1 year guys.
This thing has been a major eyesore, even before groundbreaking (designs) and certainly once they put up the layer upon layer of ugly painted cement broken up with window holes in all the wrong places. Whoever was the architect and whoever signed off on this – should be ashamed. It ruins the view of the skyline, the flow of the park, doesnt fit the look of the other buildings and looks like a giant slab of cheese with holes. Another waste of funds.
If we need a library at all, it should be flat (2 floors max), open, all glass, with e books and as much digital content as possible. Accessable for kids, the elderly and the disabled… not this trash. Level/demolish and burn it with fire!
Agreed, whatever architect designed this was more drunk than I am when I comment on LIC Post.
It should have been designed by the sculptor that did the pink bubblegum sculpture, now THAT was art.
The FAKE MRLIC wrote the July 28,2018 comment on being drunk when he comments here.
Yes the library will surely ruin the consistency of architecture among the beautiful high rise boxes.
It’s delay is a shame and a waste, but don’t get on a high horse about how it looks when the neighborhood is already 20 years into building giant, cheap condo hives. Don’t like it? Don’t go.
We are talking about a horribly managed publicly funded project that is years off schedule and way over budget that was built on public land in a beautiful waterfront park by a Queens library president who is in court defending his excessive spending. Nobody is on a high horse here other than you and your snarky comment.
Eye of the beholder. I find that those whose view is obstructed hate it while those high enough to see over it like it. My view is obstructed however I like the way it looks and that it garners attention, mostly positive, from those across the river. I don’t like the manner in which it came to be and the ridiculous costs and time it incurred. It could have been handled much better. It will be nice when (if) it’s ever completed.
Wasn’t our councilperson Jimmy Van Bramer a former Queens Library staffer? If this is what “influence and clout” can bring, I’m not so sure I want him as the Borough President. Sad—I’ve voted for him since 2009.
JVB is a clueless, wasteful, Illegal Immigrant loving crook. He also wasted taxpayer money $500,000 on the pink bubblegum statue. He did not even use a local artist. I believe it was a Brooklyn artist. Why should the Library be any different. The streets around my area have not been paved in 16 years at least. Keep voting the same losers into office and nothing will change. Cuomo, DumBlasio and JVB.
The story of the school is this. The Polish tenants here have been planting and planting for 2 years. We had sunflowers growing there real big last summer. Janitor came out and chopped everything down. The new plantings this year were growing great. Janitor came out a few days ago and cut half of everything down and then asked me to ask everyone not to smoke by school. We have tried with that spot. At the beginning we asked, Board Of Education wanted a million dollar insurance policy. So everyone decided to just plant, but anything the grows great, they chop down. As for the planting in the park, parks department knows about the sunflowers, they like them, they are very open for suggestions if people want to plant things. All you do is ask Heather, she is in charge of the gardens, she will tell you if it matches the parks plantings or not. All you do is ask and tell her where you want to plant them so the employees do not dig them out. The school does nothing for the outside. On another note, I think it’s sucks that they have no parking at 7am in the morning so school buses can load and unload the children. This would be fine, but the teachers have taken it upon themselves to copy and distribute Placards so they can all park for free and the school buses now have to double park which is dangerous for these kids, which are disabled. Even the janitor has a parking card. Not right. You move your cars thinking you are moving them for the children, but you are waking up and moving for the teachers and janitors. End of story. I would love to plant all over the neighborhood, but things just do not last. At Night there are women and I will not mention from where, taking plants from the park and there is one weed they take that grows wild that they cook with. They come here with big bags and just take what they want. But it warms my heart knowing the plants they steal are piss soaked…
Stop smoking by the school and by the park. We all have to inhale your disgusting smoke because you’ve decided to piggishly smoke?
What the hell are you talking about crazy James?
Whoever is posting things from our forum http://www.HuntersPointCrossing.com here on the LIC Post site, please stop. Otherwise we will start going through every member here and start removing suspects. At the very least, you should show your face. You have a person pretending to be me, they have someone pretending to be Marie, calling themselves Crazy Marie Sacino Hanlon and at least with us, we do not hide behind fake names and we say what we think. I use my full name, I do not hide behind fake names nor do I impersonate anyone.
Aw, I gotta wait another year before I can abandon my kids at this free day care center while I spend my waking hours chugging chardonnnay, gossiping, and lusting after my yoga instructor?!
Preeeeeaaaach
I wish I had to wait a year before reading another snotty comment from the real spoiled brats here, the anonymous trolls. Coming to small local news sites just to be negative, and to insult people you don’t know… why? Because that is what our country is denigrating towards… childish, immature, angry, completely uninformed little terds who snipe at people for fun.
so brooklynmc is your legal name? I’d be angry too.
“the mayor’s office considered getting rid of Triton but decided against it because it could have delayed the project another two years.” <— The city will hunt down and fine small businesses for things like having the wrong color door knob. They will hunt down, boot and tow your car if your parking ticket is 30 seconds late. They will arrange the best legal team from around the world to prevent deportation of illegal immigrants. Yet, somehow the city cannot fire, sue, destroy the reputation and get back the payment of a major construction project and hire the 1000s of other construction companies that'll jump on this opportunity but won't know of it since the city has the MOST CONFUSING contract bidding system out there?
By the time they finish this libraries will no longer be a thing – Oh wait..A great piece of real estate wasted bc it was someone’s pet project.
they are still waiting for the glass to come from Spain when there are plenty of glass places in the united states – great job Mr. JVB – NOT.
The glass that had to go through the hands of three countries has all arrived, finally. Funny, cause to me, it looks just like normal glass. But I am sure that we are all just a bunch of dumb New Yorkers that wouldn’t understand. This glass is special. It is German, Spanish, Connecticut, New York glass.
Why on Earth would anyone think that libraries are going to “no longer be a thing”? They are thriving and will continue to do so in the future. If you don’t believe me, go into any of our massively overcrowded Queens libraries.
That’s fine I doubt I’ll be know how to read before then anyway.
The FAKE MRLIC wrote the July 27, comment on I’ll be know how to read by then??????My take on this is why do we need “IMPORTED GLASS”?
imported glass is better, stupid
Even if it is, which I doubt. It is probably MORE EXPENSIVE and as we know very much delayed. Stupid.