Two large performing arts projects dealt publicly with costs last week, but with dramatically different public buzz. The Miami-Dade Performing Arts Center, 20 months late in its construction and $67.7 million over budget, got grudging approval to move forward (username: ajreader@artsjournal.com, password: access) from the county commissioners. While Madison, Wisconsin’s, Overture Center for the Arts announced its project costs had more than doubled ($205 million vs. the original estimates of $100 million), but Madison was all leaps and smiles about the news.
Despite sharing the same architect (Cesar Pelli), the projects have obvious differences that would lead to these radically different community reactions (one Miami-Dade commissioner compared the situation to chronic spousal abuse, while a Madison local called their news ‘outstanding and wonderful’). The most obvious difference is that the Madison project is privately funded (by a single donor, mind you), while Miami-Dade is a collaborative public/private project, drawing significant investment from the county.
Both projects show a useful lesson about project costs and the control thereof…they are inversely proportional. A consulting friend loves to draw a quick thought-chart to make this point about cultural construction projects. Our ability to control costs starts high on the left side of the chart, and drops like a rock as the first dollar is spent on the project, and thereafter. Our actual costs incurred start at zero on the left side, and rise like a rocket as the chart moves forward in time (see my lame attempt at the graphic to the right).
In short, as money flows on a project, our ability to control future costs drops dramatically. The small choices we make lock the project into specific trajectories that quickly become forces rather than options. Problem is, the public usually notices the project most when we have the least amount of control over the final cost. One clear implication is that planning and honest perspectives are essential before the money starts to flow.
Miami-Dade has just approved a plan to hire some serious project management consultants to complete the job ($150 an hour for five executives and more than $100 an hour for five more, totalling $2.3 million by the end of the year). They will enter a world on the far right side of the chart, which might explain their salary demands.
