Yeah, it's a necessary project, and there's only one place you're going to get the bulk of the money from; that said, $175 million is about $40 million more than the figures I was hearing. This really does raise expectations: if you're paying that sort of price-tag, then the result really does need to be 'world class'. The recently-completed Seattle Public Library - which definitely goes into the world-class category - cost that city's taxpayers $165 million, plus contributions from private sponsors ($20 million from Gates alone) and other levels of government. So a similar ballpark. I really look forward to seeing more details (and the architecture) start to emerge, although I'm not looking forward to reading comments in the Sun when some fancy Euro architect gets picked to do it.
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