It's been called by some of the state's top legislatures and local leaders alike as an eyesore. State senate president and former acting governor has been quoted as calling it "yucky looking." New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA) board member Ray Bateman even acknowledged Xanadu "looks like hell right now."

Just one hour prior to officials from Meadowlands Xanadu opening the doors of the massive two billion-plus square foot facility to sneak peak what can be expected when the project is finished later this year, they had to do some explaining to their landlords. The mission was to prove that the exterior eyesore, as many see it, would not be the way people perceive Xanadu in the end.

Two weeks ago, NJSEA chairman Carl Goldberg sent a letter to Xanadu president Larry Siegel requesting his presence to quell the complaints and assure the NJSEA board that his project would be aesthetically up to par when complete, which is expected by November.

"As you are keenly aware, the sports authority board has widespread concern with the current appearance of the project," Goldberg wrote to Siegel, requesting that representatives of the Rockwell Group, Xanadu’s chief architectural design team, be present for questioning.

Although the NJSEA did sign off on a master plan for Xanadu in 2004, members said they were vehemently taken off guard by what they see today, a steel structure encased in bright blue, orange and turquoise tiles intertwined with different shades of each other.

Xanadu’s answer: Wait until it’s done. Siegel, flanked by members of his interior, exterior and landscape design teams tried their best to calm the uneasy nerves of the board, claiming that at complete build-out, Xanadu would not be such an eyesore.

"What you see today when you drive by and walk around is the first layer of architecture and there is more that is going to be added on," said Siegel, referring to parking decks, signage and landscaping that he thinks will compliment the matrix tile schemed façade. "One of the things that needs to happen is the project needs to appear fun, festive, entertaining and all the rest of those things. The outside of this project needs to relate to the inside."

Siegel told the board that many entertainment venues the size of Xanadu are situated in much warmer climates in the U.S., therefore there is not much of a need to create an exterior finish, that they are open-air. In the case of Xanadu, however, design consultant and architect David Jansen of Toronto-based Adamson Associates said it was essential to invite the public in by using the "fun" color scheme to give a message as to what Xanadu was all about. He differed that Xanadu should have a serious exterior architectural element such as other projects he is working on like towers three, four and five at the World Trade Center site.

"Everybody seems to be judging the building now, saying ‘this is what we’re going to get’," said Jansen. "The matrix look will be phased over with other additives. This was never meant to be a serious building. The World Trade Center is a serious building."

The meeting, although generally accepted by board members as a wait and see assurance, holding Xanadu to its word, didn’t leave all opinions on the matter quelled. Soon, they will look to approve signage, but have already warned Xanadu to scale down some of its planned large-scale LED boards. Siegel said concepts right now presented to the board would look 40 percent smaller when formally proposed for approval.

Board member and Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura quipped that tractor-trailers going to the ports with empty containers must have missed the depot and dropped them at the Xanadu site to help construct it.

Bateman again reaffirmed his opinion on the matter as well, saying, "It will always be shlocky no matter what you do to it."

Fontoura asked if anything could be done to change the scheme at this point, but Siegel asked for him to wait and see the outcome. Board member Richard Dressel, who is the business manager of the largest electrical union in the state, agreed.

"I’ve seen a lot of projects during construction that just don’t look good, but then in the end, the same projects turn out looking great," he said.