NYC Convention Center's 'Marshall Plan'

"As New York Gov. George Pataki gears up to step down in 2007 and mount a likely presidential bid, he is also hoping to push through the start of development on an expanded Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on Manhattan's still-gritty West Side. If he succeeds in getting the $1.7 billion project underway before he leaves office, it could serve as a counterweight to the ongoing fumbling at Ground Zero.

...On Monday, Empire State Development Corp. Chairman Charles Gargano unveiled plans drawn up by another British architect, Sir Richard Rogers, teamed up with New York's FxFowle and Chicago's A. Epstein, for an expansion of the convention center that would virtually double its convention exhibiition space, to 1.1 million square feet, and reorient its truck marshalling and security area. The plan also calls for a new convention hotel on state-owned land and the sale of a full-block parcel south of the convention center to a private developer. while adding a convention hotel on state-owned land immediately across the street from the center."