Construction Resumes on 9/11 Museum in NYC

Battle over the 9/11 museum in New York City has apparently been resolved:

New York (CNN) — The budgetary dispute that has delayed the opening of the National September 11 Memorial Museum has been resolved, according to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The museum was scheduled to open on the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, but disagreements over funding, financing and oversight of the museum between the 9/11 Memorial and Museum Foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have halted construction. The foundation controls the memorial and museum; the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey owns the World Trade Center site.
Late Monday, all parties entered into a “memorandum of understanding,” an agreement that allows them to restart construction on the stalled museum project.  “My goal during this period has been to get construction on the museum restarted,” said Bloomberg, who is chairman of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum Foundation. “This agreement ensures that it will be restarted very soon and will not stop until the museum is completed.”

The point of contention, $300 million that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it was owed by the 9/11 Memorial and Museum Foundation for additional design and construction costs, is being dropped in exchange for financial oversight of the museum and memorial, according to the memorandum.
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum Foundation agreed to oversight from a committee composed of eight members: two appointed by the governor of New Jersey, two appointed by the governor of New York and four by the memorial board.  The foundation has agreed to have no less than six months of operating funds on hand at all times once the museum opens, though it’s not clear if the foundation can meet this requirement because it is hard to say exactly how much money the museum will bring in, and the memorandum does not outline specific ramifications if the foundation is unable to meet these financial obligations.

The Cost of the WTC Memorial

700 million USD, according to the AP Story:

NEW YORK (AP) — With its huge reflecting pools, ringed by waterfalls and skyscrapers, and a cavernous underground museum still under construction, the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center is an awesome spectacle that moved and inspired some 4.5 million visitors in its first year.
But all that eye-welling magnificence comes with a jaw-dropping price tag. The foundation that runs the memorial estimates that once the roughly $700 million project is complete, the memorial and museum will together cost $60 million a year to operate.
The anticipated cost has bothered some critics and raised concerns even among the memorial’s allies that the budget may be unsustainable without a hefty government subsidy.
By comparison, the National Park Service budgeted $8.4 million this year to operate and maintain Gettysburg National Military Park and $3.6 million for the monument that includes the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. Running Arlington National Cemetery, which has more than 14,000 graves and receives 4 million visitors a year, costs $45 million annually.

National September 11 Memorial Museum Scheduled for 2012

According to the website of the National 9/11 Memorial Museum:

VISITORS TO THE MEMORIAL MUSEUM will be presented with a sequence of experiences which allow for individual and personal encounters within an overall context of a historical narrative. The nature of the Museum is such that the shell of the space, comprising existing foundations, the slurry wall and other in-situ elements of the site is as much an artifact of 9/11 as the contents of the exhibitions.

Visitors to the Museum will enter through a Pavilion that will house an auditorium for public programming, a multi-purpose area for contemplation and refreshment and a private suite reserved for victims’ family members. Two of the original steel tridents from the Twin Towers will be enclosed within the Pavilion’s grand glass atrium, standing as references to the past, while signaling hope for the future.