Blueprints planetarium design 360
Valdez said with construction prices rising, it's likely the project will cost more than expected two years ago. "We start out with a certain estimate of the price, then it's designed, and then it's bid on, and then you find out what the real price is," Valdez said. It is typical for cost estimates to fluctuate throughout the design process for new buildings, usually going up from original projections, said Senior Vice President of Business Affairs Joel Valdez.
As the architects began talking, the concept grew into something much more than just a science center." "The reality is the science center began as a University of Arizona transfer of Flandrau into Rio Nuevo. "That was a wild, wild number," Likins said. President Peter Likins said Viñoly's doubling the cost of the project was only an estimate that shouldn't replace conclusions an economic feasibility will produce this month. Saturday the Arizona Daily Star reported Viñoly estimated the cost of the project could be more than double the original $100 million projection. Viñoly was out of town and unavailable to answer questions this week. Viñoly's vision could mean a higher price tag for the science center, projected in September 2003 to cost the city and university $100 million. Since the university and city contracted New York-based Rafael Viñoly in June as chief architect for the University Science Center, plans for the center have grown to include a 360-foot-high bridge arching over Interstate 10, likened in importance to St. More ambitious plans for the proposed University Science Center, a focal project of the downtown rejuvenation project Rio Nuevo, could turn the Flandrau Science Center's replacement into a potential city landmark. The University Science Center may move to an observatory at the base of the future UASC Rainbow Bridge, planned to be constructed downtown at cost of upward of $100 million. Image courtesy of Rafael Viñoly Architects