Gail Thompson points to the steel skeleton that one day will be covered by a glass skin at the Performing Arts Center of Greater Miami. ''That's a good weld,'' says Thompson, project director for the PAC, pointing to a nearly invisible juncture of two beams. ''That's a great weld,'' she adds, pointing to another. Then she shakes her head and points to another. ''That one's not so good.'' It will have to be redone. That will mean delays -- and costs.

Thompson is undeterred. ''I figure, scream about it now,'' she says.

Actually, it's a little hard to imagine the businesslike Thompson screaming. But as an architect whose background includes shepherding the landmark New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark through development, her voice -- and vision -- are clear about one thing: The Miami PAC must be flawless -- a singular sensation aesthetically, a perfect combination of acoustics, staging and seating for patrons.

But the price of perfection is paid with both time and money.

Center officials recently moved the expected opening date to early 2006, over 16 months behind what was originally hoped for.

Meanwhile, cost overruns that accrue from design changes, material shortages or flawed work will eventually have to be covered by someone -- either the county or the contractors.

Thompson is undeterred. ''Be ready to open when you open,'' she says.

Michael Hardy, president of Performing Arts Center Trust, which is the governing body of the complex, supports her view.

Philadelphia's new Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts held fast to its scheduled opening date even though it wasn't ready, he says. ''The critics trashed the acoustics,'' Hardy says. ``It'll take them five years to overcome that reputation. We'd rather be late.''

Earlier this year, in a dispute that became quite public, Thompson blasted the builders for structural and acoustical errors.

MANY ERRORS

These included:

• Improper work on structures that insulate the performance auditoriums from vibration and street noise.

• Manufacturing problems with doors that close off about 100 echo chambers along the side of the symphony hall to tailor the sound for various performances.

• Incorrectly fabricated steel tubes that form the frame for balconies where patrons will gather during intermissions.

''With two years of construction behind us and as much time left to go, we do not believe (the builder) is capable of significant improvement in this regard,'' Thompson wrote in a memo.

The contractor, a consortium of companies called Performing Arts Center Builders, countered that most of the problems are relatively minor and fixable. But the fact is that in a project this big -- estimated cost of $344 million, including land and management, design and other fees -- just a small change in plans instantly means millions of dollars.

Consider, for instance, that somewhere between 250 and 350 people are at work on the center at any given time. At an average annual wage of $40,000, that would mean a year's delay would produce up to $14 million in additional labor costs alone.

Who will pay for the overruns?

''We're going to mediate,'' says Bill Johnson, an assistant county manager recently dispatched to help oversee the project. Miami-Dade County's on the hook for the center's construction -- it issued bonds backed by a hotel bed tax to pay for it.

In mediation, a panel of experts picked by both sides assesses who is responsible for cost overruns, either the contractor or the county. Or it could get split.

''Our goal is to settle as many of these issues internally as possible,'' Johnson adds.

Even if the county is held liable, it won't necessarily send the project into the red. That's because there were more than $20 million in contingency fees built into the original budget.

Will the contingency fees last? That's a very hard thing to guarantee.

''We haven't even started the hardest parts of the project -- the interiors,'' says Jim Gray, a principal in Performing Arts Center Builders, the consortium formed by Odebrecht Construction, the Haskell Co. and EllisDon Construction. He contends the Miami PAC is among the most complex construction projects in the country today.

Albert Orosa, the Miami representative for the American Arbitration Association, says conflicts over cost overruns are virtually inevitable on expensive, multi-year projects.

While construction flaws do indeed occur -- steel can be fabricated wrong, for instance -- Gray adds that the unique dynamics of performance space tend to make budgetary headaches multiply rapidly.

''If you try to characterize them as normal projects, you're already out of context,'' he says.

The buildings, for instance, generally try to make architectural statements. So there are very few 90-degree angles or standard-sized dimensions.

Secondly, unlike an office building, where the interior space may be a vast open area separated by cubicle walls, with an arts center ``you design a performance hall and put a building around it.''

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

That requires dead air spaces in all the walls, for example, to prevent noise from entering or leaving. Every design element must be approved by sight line experts who want patrons to see as much of the stages as possible, and acousticians who want perfect sound, and engineers who worry about vibrations of the ventilation system.

The stages themselves are tiny cities with networks for electronics, lighting and hydraulic lifts.

''What we're building is an instrument,'' says Gray. ``And it functions like one.''

In that sense, there's no such thing as a small design change. ``An inch is a big deal. A materials change is a very big deal. A lot of experts have to render an opinion.''

Complicating matters, there aren't a lot of construction firms with expertise in performance space.

''For the most part, when a builder comes to an arts center it's the first time,'' Thompson says. ``It's a learning curve.''

Gray agrees, and says that's another cause for delay.

''We've got in South Florida, frankly, some very high quality craftsmen,'' Gray says. ``What you can't do is get a lot more of them when you need them. If you get delayed you can't make time up by putting more people on.''

Already, amid the towering beams, the wet cement and the cacophony of construction sounds, the dream is taking shape. Performance areas can be discerned. The rounded contours of what will be box seats are recognizable. Even incomplete, the stages evoke energy.

Thompson points to the opera hall with pride. ''It's one of the few grand opera stages in the country,'' she says.

The separate symphony hall is developed to the point where one can imagine musicians tuning up as patrons on upstairs porticoes enjoy stunning views of Biscayne Bay.

But when will the curtain rise?

The harsh reality is that performance centers have a history of spiraling over budget, behind schedule -- sometimes disappointing audiences artistically.

Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall has long been derided for bad sound, for instance. The Sydney Opera House, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, was supposed to take four years and $7 million, but actually ran to 14 years and $102 million. The architect, Denmark's Joern Utzon, got fired before the structure was finished.

And even the new Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles arrived not a day late but a full 15 years after Walt Disney's widow donated $50 million to get the project rolling and after so many budget crises that construction stopped completely in the mid-1990s.

MASSIVE ENDEAVOR

As recently as 2000, Miami-Dade County had sought to cap PAC construction costs at $208 million. Construction is now pegged at $254.6 million.

What's undeniable is that the Miami PAC is a civic endeavor of historic proportions -- where art, economics and the region's myriad demographic groups will converge to forge a cultural crossroads at the intersection of Biscayne Boulevard and NE 14th Street.

If it succeeds artistically, the Performing Arts Center will enrich Miami's quality of life, not unlike the impact of the famous opera houses on European capitals through the centuries.

If it succeeds architecturally, it could become an urban icon.

And if it succeeds sociologically, it could generate the kind of urban renaissance in central Miami that Lincoln Center brought to Manhattan's Upper West Side.

In that context, hurrying to get it done doesn't make sense, says Parker Thomson, chairman of the PAC Trust.

''We won't sacrifice [quality] to keep on schedule,'' he said. ``Timing is utterly outside our control.''

Fuente: The Miami Herald
Noviembre - 2003