The United Nations staged on Monday a ground-breaking ceremony to mark the start of a five-year project to renovate its decades-old headquarters complex.
Wearing blue hard hats with UN logos and brandishing shiny shovels, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, representatives of members states and the host country -- the United States, and other senior UN officials, turned up the soil at the North Lawn where a temporary conference building will be erected.
"Today we turn the soil which the United Nations stands on to mark the rebirth, or renovation, of our headquarters," Ban said in a speech delivered at the ceremony.
"With this ground-breaking ceremony, we open a new chapter -- a historic period of construction that will last five years," he said.
Ban said that after renovation, facilities at the UN headquarters will be "safer and more modern," "greener and more efficient."
"We will make them a model of environmental stewardship, by reducing our electrical and water usage, and by removing harmful materials that were used in the original construction," he said.
Built between 1950 and 1952 and touted as a masterpiece, the UN headquarters complex covers 17 acres, and includes 6 buildings totaling about 2.6 million square feet.
Nearly 60 years after its original structures were completed, the sprawling complex is now beset with problems ranging from leaking roofs to aging equipment to exorbitant energy consumption. Asbestos, a toxic building material widely used, are also said to be endangering the health of people working there.
In December, 2007, the UN General Assembly approved an accelerated strategy proposed by the UN chief to complete the overall renovation process in five years, replacing a previous seven-year plan but retaining the original budget at nearly 1.9 billion U.S. dollars.
During the renovation period, thousands of UN employees will move to swing space offsites scattered in areas surrounding the current UN home.
The temporary North Lawn Conference building will house the secretary-general and his office, some senior UN managers, as well as the functions of the Conference building or the General Assembly building during their respective renovations.
The three-storeyed building will be demolished so as to restore the original UN landscape upon completion of the whole renovation process.
Source:Xinhua
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