On hold

Building Design reports that Richard Rogers and Norman Foster’s towers for New York’s Ground Zero site may not be completed for another 20 years, according to a leaked report commissioned by the city’s Port Authority, who own the site. The report claims the New York property market cannot support the extra 700,000sq m of space they'd create. Work on the third tower, by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, has started on site.

Despina Katsikakis, group chairman of office specialist DEGW, says“The whole building industry needs to rethink what the role of office space is. Maybe because New York has been at the forefront of this recession, the messages are coming out of there first. But how much of Canary Wharf will be empty? How much of London’s planned office buildings are really needed in their current manifestations?”