MIT Sues Gehry for "Design and Construction Failures"
By Margaret Foster | From Preservation | Nov. 7, 2007
The Stata Center replaced the beloved World War II-era
Building 20.
Credit: ©Finlay McWalter
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology last week filed a lawsuit against Frank Gehry's architecture firm, citing design flaws in its Stata Center, completed in 2004.
"I think the issues are fairly minor," Gehry told the New York Times. "MIT is after our insurance."
The suit says that the school in Cambridge, Mass., paid $1.5 million to repair the cracked walls of the amphitheater earlier this year. Gehry told the Times, "The client chose not to put certain devices on the roofs, to save money."
The $300 million Ray and Maria Stata Center was built on the site of a World War II-era timber-frame structure known as Building 20, which MIT demolished in 1999. Meanwhile, some Brooklyn residents are still concerned about the scale of Gehry's Atlantic Yards project, which will impact the borough's historic brownstone neighborhoods.
Gehry has been compared to Frank Lloyd Wright, who, when a client complained that his new house's ceiling leaked water onto the dining room table, replied, "Move your chair."
Read memories of MIT's lost Building 20 and its famed Radiation Lab >>
Like what you see? Subscribe to Preservation and explore the mystery and meaning of our most beloved places through in-depth features and vibrant photography.
Comments
