S21: More Time, More Money

The centerpiece of Stuttgart 21 is the main train station designed by ingenhoven architects to serve a new high-speed rail line that will add the German city to the continent's high-speed rail network. With the tracks built twelve meters below the old ones, the roof of the new station will serve as an extension of the Schlossgarten park, with skylights protruding above the lawn to bring natural light to the platforms. 

In 2018 the project celebrated a milestone: half of the station's 28 "chalice-shaped concrete supports which form the roof of the new main railway station" were completed; this per the profile of photographer Achim Birnbaum, who has beautiful shots of the subterranean spaces. Three years later, at the end of 2021, only four more of the supports were completed, as reported by Manuel Pestalozzi in a short update on the project on German-Architects last week. The nineteenth support — notable as it will face a different direction than the rest and serve as one of the main entrances to the platforms — is soon to be built.

Pestalozzi writes that the project, which the team led by ingenhoven architects won in an international competition in 1997, was originally expected to cost 2.6 billion euros and be completed in 2019. Then costs grew to more than 4 billion euros. Recent forecasts indicate costs have reached 8.2 billion euros, while one article puts it even higher, at 9.2 billion. The main reason for the escalating costs appear to be "sharply rising construction prices." Not surprisingly, the state's transportation minister is demanding that the federal government pay for the additional costs of Stuttgart 21.