Budget
During development and construction of the park, many structures were added, redesigned or modified. These changes often resulted in budget increases. For example, the bandshell's proposed budget was $10.8 million. When the elaborate, cantilevered Gehry design required extra pilings to be driven into the bedrock to support the added weight, the cost of the bandshell eventually spiraled to $60.3 million. The cost of the park, as itemized in the following table, amounted to almost $500 million.
Mayor Daley at first placed much of the blame for the delay and cost overrun on Frank Gehry, who designed the pavilion and its connecting bridge; Daley's office later apologized to the architect. A 2001 investigative report by the Chicago Tribune described the park then under construction and its budget overruns as an "expensive public-works debacle that can be traced to haphazard planning, design snafus and cronyism". According to Lois Weisberg, commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and James Law, executive director of the Mayor's Office of Special Events, once the full scope of the project was finalized the project was completed within the revised budget.
| Project | Proposed cost | Final cost | % of proposed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Garage | $87.5 million | $105.6 million | 121% |
| Metra superstructure | $43.0 million | $60.6 million | 141% |
| Jay Pritzker Pavilion | $10.8 million | $60.3 million | 558% |
| Harris Theater | $20.0 million | $60.0 million | 300% |
| Park finishes/landscaping | N/A | $42.9 million | |
| Design and management costs | N/A | $39.5 million | |
| Endowment | $10.0 million | $25.0 million | 250% |
| Crown Fountain | $15.0 million | $17.0 million | 113% |
| BP Pedestrian Bridge | $8.0 million | $14.5 million | 181% |
| Lurie Garden | $4.0–8.0 million | $13.2 million | 330%–165% |
| Cloud Gate sculpture | $6.0 million | $23.0 million | 383% |
| Exelon Pavilions | N/A | $7.0 million | |
| Peristyle/Wrigley Square | $5.0 million | $5.0 million | 100% |
| Chase Promenade | $6.0 million | $4.0 million | 67% |
| McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink | $5.0 million | $3.2 million | 64% |
| Misc. (fencing, terraces, graphics) | N/A | $1.6 million | |
| Total | $224.3 million | $482.4 million | 215% |
| Source: Chicago Tribune. Note: does not include Boeing Galleries or Nichols Bridgeway. | |||
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Famous quotes containing the word budget:
“We might come closer to balancing the Budget if all of us lived closer to the Commandments and the Golden Rule.”
—Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)
“The United States is the only great nation whose government is operated without a budget. The fact is to be the more striking when it is considered that budgets and budget procedures are the outgrowth of democratic doctrines and have an important part in developing the modern constitutional rights.... The constitutional purpose of a budget is to make government responsive to public opinion and responsible for its acts.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“A budget takes the fun out of money.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)