"This project has a tight construction budget," he said, adding that managers have been told, " 'We don't want you to touch that line item' " for art.
There is currently no plan in place to acquire and install art for the facility, which is being touted by city and tourism officials as a gateway to Philadelphia's artistic and cultural attractions.
Doug Oliver, spokesman for Mayor Nutter, said that because there was no city funding involved in construction, there was no municipal requirement for art.
"It's funded by the state," he said. Nutter, who was chairman of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority before taking office, has been on vacation and was unavailable for direct comment.
"We support public art," Oliver said. "We think there should be a permanent exhibition in the new building, as there is in the current one. We'll work with the state and the Convention Center Authority to accomplish that."
Ameenah Young, president and chief executive of the Convention Center Authority, said $1.5 million originally had been budgeted for art.
"I'm encouraged that we'll be able to use it," she said Friday.
The agency's first priority, Creedon said, is to complete the building on time and on budget. If that can be accomplished without spending every penny, he added, the state had a responsibility to do it - even if it meant no funds for public art.
That said, Creedon indicated that some public art might eventually be included in the finished center. "It's looking possible we are going to have enough [money] to have it," he said. An answer will come in about two months.
Officials at the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, which served as a state agent in assembling the land for the project, said the RDA's art requirement - which requires developers building on land acquired by the authority to utilize up to 1 percent of construction costs to commission works of art - did not apply for the Convention Center expansion.
