Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, designer of the station, said the Oculus resembles a bird being released from a child's hand. The roof was originally designed to mechanically open to increase light and ventilation to the enclosed space. Herbert Muschamp, architecture critic of The New York Times, compared the design to the Bethesda Terrace and Fountainin Central Park. Cost and delays[edit] The Transportation Hub has been dubbed "the world's most expensive transportation hub" due to its massive cost for reconstruction—$3.74 billion dollars.[38][44] By contrast, the proposed two-mile PATH extension connecting Newark Liberty International Airport to the NWK-WTC service is projected to cost $1.5 billion.[45] The hub has also been criticized for being delayed almost 10 years.[46] Originally, the reconstruction was to be funded by the Federal Transit Administration, which gave approximately $1.9 billion to the project. The costs of the hub were still expensive, but it was to be finished at budget in 2009. In 2014 dollars, the cost of the hub and the adjacent Fulton Center, combined, was $5.1 billion.[47] The hub cost twice as much in 2014 as it should have originally cost in 2004.[46] A single hallway in the elegantly constructed hub cost $225 million and was billed as the "world's most expensive hallway",[48] while construction, maintenance, and management alone cost $635 million; the Port Authority awarded several subcontracts, most of them costly.[46] In addition, over $500 million in cost savings was overlooked.[46] The price of the station was further driven up by Calatrava's architectural decisions.[a 1] He wanted to import custom-made steel from a northern Italian factory, which cost $474 million, and have a columnless, aesthetically based design; skylights in the ground, instead of trees;[a 2] and large, soaring "wings", or rafters.[46] Another $335 million was added to the cost overrun because the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had to build around the New York City Subway's IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line (carrying the 1 train), since the Metropolitan Transportation Authorityrefused to close the line due to fears of inconveniencing commuters from Staten Island taking the Staten Island Ferry. The line had to be supported on a bridge over the station instead of on columns through the station.[46] In 2012, Hurricane Sandy damaged several hundred million dollars worth of materials.[46] The hub's skyrocketing costs also attracted much controversy, with an editor at The New York Times saying that "Mr. Calatrava is amassing an unusually long list of projects marred by cost overruns, delays and litigation", referring to his other projects around the world that were over budget.[49] Especially because the current station has a ridership of only 46,000 daily passengers compared to 250,000 at Grand Central Terminal) some think that the renovation is overpriced and overstylized.[46] On November 5, 2015, the opening was delayed to early 2016, due to a leaking roof.[50] The director of the Port Authority, Pat Foye, declined to hold an event to celebrate the opening of the Hub, describing it as "symbol of excess" and noting he was "troubled with the huge cost" of the construction project.[51]