We've always been partial to Santiago Calatrava's World Trade Center transit hub; the building, a kind of spiny origami piece with movable wings, is the most genuinely exciting structure on the site. It's also the only one that, for a long time, seemed to be getting anywhere. So it's with a heavy heart that we report the following: The damn thing is suddenly a billion dollars over budget. The projected cost for the hub is now a jaw-dropping $3.4 billion. (And that's the kind of money, as we learned today, that will buy you about 120 apartment towers in Brooklyn.) The contractors are embarking on a "major value engineering effort" to steer the project back to its original $2.2 billion price-tag. We think we know what that means — dumbed-down form and Plan-B materials — although the builders swear the "overall integrity of the design" will be intact. Screw integrity. Give us the movable wings.

$3.4B For WTC Hub a Rail Shock [NYP]