MIT filed a negligence lawsuit against Frank Gehry last week, arguing that the architect "breached [his] duties by providing deficient design services and drawings" for a building that opened in 2004.
Gehry, the world-renowned architect known for undulating lines and deconstructing forms and designer of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall, was paid $15 million to design the Stata Center at MIT.
Gehry also designed the Lewis Science Library, under construction at the corner of Washington Road and Ivy Lane since late 2004. The project has been delayed several times because of construction complications.
In the lawsuit filed Oct. 31, MIT claims that the Gehry-designed Stata Center has "serious design flaws." Constructed at a cost of $300 million, the building has suffered from leaks and cracked masonry. Specifically, MIT says that the building's amphitheater began to crack as a result of problems with drainage.
Other problems listed in the lawsuit include mold on the brick exterior of the building and continuous problems with leaks. MIT paid another company over $1.5 million to replace the amphitheater's seats, bricks and drainage system.
The school is seeking unspecified damages for costs incurred as a result of the alleged negligence.
MIT also accuses the construction company that built the Stata Center, Skanska USA, for faulty construction.
Skanska was also the original the contracting company for the Lewis Library, but the University replaced it with Barr and Barr, Inc., last November because Skanska was "not continuing at a pace that the University found satisfactory," University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt '96 said.
In December, a Skanska spokesperson told The Daily Princetonian that the University replaced the company because the two parties "couldn't come to an agreement on the path forward" in constructing the library.
Though its peer institution was displeased with Gehry's designs, Cliatt said the University does "not share the same concerns" as MIT about its own Gehry-designed project.
After months of delays, the library is set to open in fall 2008. The library was originally scheduled to open last December, but after several delays and the switching of construction companies, the planned opening date was pushed back.
Cliatt said the University "learned a lot during the designing phase" of the library and also had "significant water-testing protocol," Cliatt said.
Peter Lewis '55, chairman of the Progressive Corporation Insurance Company, donated $60 million toward the construction of the library in November 2001.
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