MIT Sues Gehry, Citing Leaks In $300m Complex

The Boston Globe ^ | 11/6/07 | Shelley Murphy

[steve-b]

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has filed a negligence suit against world-renowned architect Frank Gehry, charging that flaws in his design of the $300 million Stata Center in Cambridge, one of the most celebrated works of architecture unveiled in years, caused leaks to spring, masonry to crack, mold to grow, and drainage to back up.

The suit says that MIT paid Los Angeles-based Gehry Partners $15 million to design the Stata Center, which was hailed by critics as innovative and eye-catching with its unconventional walls and radical angles. But soon after its completion in spring 2004, the center's outdoor amphitheater began to crack due to drainage problems, the suit says. Snow and ice cascaded dangerously from window boxes and other projecting roof areas, blocking emergency exits and damaging other parts of the building, according to the suit. Mold grew on the center's brick exterior, the suit says, and there were persistent leaks throughout the building....

[willgolfforfood]

Since this is in Boston, I guess we’ll have to call it “The OTHER Big Dig”.

[1rudeboy]

Well jeepers . . . did they want a work of art, or a building?

[chrisser]

I went to school at CWRU before that building was built.

I hear that those lovely curving metal roofs are really fun in the winter.

The ice builds up, then huge sheets go sliding off when the sun hits the building and slightly warms the roof.

I guess the whole “Form follows function” mantra has been rejected by this guy...

[gondramB]

>>They do more to increase our economy than just about any other institution.

---

Just curious. How?>>

the number of startup companies and add-on value to existing companies.

Like the way magnetic storage research helped the trillion dollars hard drive industry.

Or the way robotic research led to everything from Roomba to rescue bots.

Or the the display research that kept American companies in the market at all - and one spinoff now has 80% of the world’s TV over cell phone traffic.

It was amazing after spending time at Georgia Tech and Cal Tech to do some work at MIT - its a whole other level of research.

[exit82]

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

I see you have been there too.

Good description of architects.

[hellbender]

Snow and ice cascaded dangerously from window boxes and other projecting roof areas... Mold grew on the center's brick exterior... and there were persistent leaks throughout the building...

I think this building is ugly and ridiculous, but on the other hand, cascading snow and ice, mold, and leaks can be found in many very traditional buildings up theah in New England :-)

[Dixie Yooper]

Does anyone know if this eyesore is LEED Certified?

[TrueKnightGalahad]

Sourced from Cocktail_Party_Physics? LOL - how about Moonbat Physics? The first line of that story reads, "While Future Spouse was hobnobbing with various folks at the Yearly Kos convention in Chicago on Thursday...." I would give no more credence to her 'physics' comments than I would to her future husband's 'politics.'

[pt17]

I don’t expect they did have any input. But looking at the aerial shot in 21, one would expect somebody to ask of the professors, “Can this work?”

You'd think so, but having done a few years of "hard time" in education a long time ago; I learned that the mix of political administrative hacks, ego-driven academicians, alumnae associations and trustees can result in bizarre outcomes where the people who have the most to contribute are given the least participation. This would appear to be one of those outcomes.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The same city with the Big Dig catastrophe.

Must be something in the water.

[Alex Murphy]

Reminds me of the architecture (esp the "in-between" stuff) in Dark City

[JoshM99]

Looks to me like CalTech had something to do with the building design.

[Sgt_Schultze]

You’re probably right. But it looks like something the “art” department probably consented to.

[centurion316]

Food for thought, maybe Kansas City’s Nelson Art Gallery should get in touch with the MIT folks. Their Tractor Shed isn’t what they bargained for either.

[wally-balls]

Isn’t MIT a world-class engineering school? Shouldn’t the preeminent scholars in engineering have been able to spot the glaring design flaws?
__________________________________________________________

They also boast a world class Architecture school. While I was attending architecture school if you weren’t doing the “Gehry thing” in your studio you weren’t pushing the envelope. Never mind if it could actually be built or not. Architecture schools are churning out sculptors and not creative problem solvers

[HHFi]

Some city leaders here in Dallas want to squander millions on an art museum or something designed by Gehry, which I'll happily sign any petition to stop. Bad enough we're blowing so much money on giant bridges to places nobody wants to visit and now, a big toll highway through the middle of what was supposed to be a park (and resting on top of the levees that keep downtown from flooding, so it'll not only be an eyesore, but a disaster waiting to happen). We can't afford police or road repairs, but we can afford garbage like this. I'm stunned we're not also building a Popsicle stick skyscraper, the world's biggest magnifying glass and an Escalator-To-Nowhere.

This city is run by morons. Having spent a lot of time down at City Hall and knowing most of them personally, I suspect they like Gehry because their thought processes are as pointless and chaotic as his "designs."

[ikka]

I did not actually read that part, I was just looking for details on the Gehry “shiny object of doom” in LA.

[pepsionice]

Go check out the Ramstein BX and Hotel project that the US Air Force have underway in Germany. Over $300 million between the two invested. Huge issues and rumors are that the whole thing may never be occupied and may have to be torn down because of all the issues at hand. In this case...folks may actually have to go to jail.

[Calvin Locke]

My father once worked for the Army Corps of Engineerings as financial type.

One of his stories was somebody accepted the design for building that had the office doors opening into the hallways, which is a fire hazard.

The contractor followed the contract, and I forget how much the taxpayer had to pay yet again, to do the job correctly.

[Old Professer]

Why didn’t they allow the students to compete for a design and then build it that way?

Probably too hard.