UNITED NATIONS — The official tour will tell you the founding of the United Nations in 1945 brought the world from post-war misery toward prosperity and happiness. Analternative “dirty” tour will tell you the United Nations is crumbling.
The building, that is. While critics, particularly inWashington, may be worried about the oil-for-food scandal and investigations into mismanagement in allocating U.N. contracts, some at the United Nations have more practical concerns.
Such as leaky pipes lined with asbestos, creaky airconditioning systems and an eerie locked room housing outdated electrical systems pulsing with so much energy that computerswon’t work on the floor below.
Some years ago part of the roof blew off the sleekly curved General Assembly building, landing, by good fortune, on someparked cars rather than a passing ambassador.
Inside the chamber where delegates from the 191 member states gather to discuss poverty, human rights, peace andsecurity, even the ambassadors were not immune from danger.
“We had to replace the entire ceiling there because partsof the ceiling were falling down on delegates’ heads,” said Peter Wendeborn, one of the architects working on a six-yearrenovation plan for the U.N. complex due to start in 2007.
The United Nations has been working for years on a $1.2billion Capital Master Plan for renovating its aging headquarters on Manhattan’s East River, completed in 1952.
Financing is not finalized since the United States declinedto make an interest free loan, instead offering it at 5.54percent. Member states are still deciding what to do.
The United Nations has been inviting diplomats, U.S.congressmen and media to take the “dirty” tour of the buildingas part of a campaign to secure the necessary funding.
Not everybody is convinced. Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Republican from Alabama, urged the U.S. Senate in April toslash the proposed loan by half, saying $1.2 billion was an”outrageous” sum by commercial standards.
“This renovation plan is far too expensive. Donald Trump told me … he had offered to do the project for $500 million, yet U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan did not seem interested,” Sessions told the Senate, referring to real estate tycoon Trump who has built skyscrapers throughout New York.
SEEKING TEMPORARY HOME
The plan has hit another snag with the refusal this year bythe New York City Legislature — partly antagonized by U.N. opposition to the war in Iraq — to approve a plan to build anew 30-story office in a park next door as a temporary home for the 3,400-plus people who work at the United Nations.
U.N. officials are seeking alternatives. Brooklyn, across the river, wants the business while other suggestions include a new tower at the World Trade Center site or even a moored cruise ship.
Meanwhile, Wendeborn wants to tell anybody who will listen that the architectural landmark which boasts the likes of LeCorbusier among its designers has not weathered well.
Peeling back the cover of an air conditioning unit in aconference room high in the domino-shaped skyscraper thathouses the U.N. Secretariat, Wendeborn crouches and peers in.
“That powdery stuff in the wall, it’s asbestos,” he says, adding that 4,000 units around the U.N. building contain asbestos, now linked to cancer and other diseases.
“Whenever we want to put in a light fitting we have tobring in men in space suits,” Wendeborn said of the asbestosproblem in the building.
Three floors of the skyscraper house ancient airconditioners with giant snaking pipes, coated in asbestos andmany crumbling, rusting or leaking.
“The equipment was designed to last 25 years. It’s 30 years beyond its lifespan,” Wendeborn said. “The equipment manufacturer is out of business so we can’t even buy parts.”
“They’ve asked us to give this back for their museum,” headded, pointing to a control panel with antique dials thatcould come straight from a 1950s film set of a space ship.
Though it is on international territory, the United Nations signed treaties agreeing to abide by local U.S. regulations, but Wendeborn said U.S. authorities did not come in to check.With constant budget woes and no commercial pressure to keep up, the building has not been maintained.
The heating and cooling system is so erratic that employees often shiver or bake with no recourse except to open the windows. Unlike most modern office blocks the windows do open, but that’s yet another headache for building managers worriedabout bomb attacks.
There are also no sprinklers, and the fire alarm system isso outdated controllers can pinpoint the source of an alarmonly to within three floors in the 39 story tower.
The buildings will be completely gutted internally andrefitted, though the basic shell will remain as Wendeborn saidit would be more expensive to tear it down brick by brick.
The U.N. complex draws some 800,000 tourists a year, with visitors paying up to $11.50 for tours in several languages.
Josephine Wanjiku, a guide from Kenya leading a recenttour, explained the U.N.’s work to visitors from Wales, Mexicoand California. Standing in front of a mural she said: “You see destruction, concentration camps, people fighting. Then theU.N. is founded and you see resurrection where families start to move on after the U.N. is founded.”
On the alternative tour, Wendeborn does not like to focus on the $1.2 billion cost of the renovation project. “Sometimes it scares people, but that’s what it costs,” he said.
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