Still, such an unusual project presents hurdles in capturing a mainstream audience.
But for Mr. Du of Pengcheng, the project's hurdles are apparent.
The project's hurdles were significant, particularly the challenge of raising money after the World Trade Center attacks.
Mr. Vardanian said that only private money had been involved in starting the school, but approval from the higher authorities had spared the project bureaucratic hurdles that it might otherwise have faced.
The founding idea is to assist faculty projects over hurdles that might prevent development, with the assumption that not every faculty member will experience such need on an annual basis.
At each step, the project has faced hurdles presented by the complex Caltrans highway planning process, by the greater political priorities given to such projects as freeway expansion, sound walls and more carpool lanes in both counties, and by a grindingly slow state highway construction schedule.
At the moment, even federally approved projects face legal hurdles.
The project has more hurdles to jump, including securing zoning variances for the tower's height and its use as a residence.
He said the measures would include privatization, infrastructure projects, cutting administrative hurdles, reducing the cost of politics and carrying out a "historic" change to Italy's constitution that would require balanced budgets.
But the project had faced hurdles through the years, from concerns about harm to the Connecticut River to the indictment of Mr. Armetta for his tangential involvement in an organized-crime price-fixing case involving the state's trash industry.
He said the measures would include privatization, infrastructure projects, cutting administrative hurdles, streamlining the government, and carrying out a "historic" change to Italy's constitution that would require balanced budgets.
