Home
Subscribe
About the Trust
Advertising
About Us
Search

MIT Sues Gehry for "Design and Construction Failures"

Story by Margaret Foster / Nov. 7, 2007

 Printer-friendly version

Morgantown, Pa.
The Stata Center replaced the beloved World War II-era Building 20. (©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 >>

Want Today's News headlines delivered to your e-mail box? Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter >>


Recent News Stories

  • Historic block lost for Rite Aid - Nov. 6, 2007
  • Neutra's Kaufmann House to be auctioned - Nov. 5, 2007
  • As wildfires subside, Calif. assesses damage - Nov. 1, 2007
  • Tomb with an unknown future - Oct. 31, 2007
  • Fort Knox saves WWII building - Oct. 30, 2007
  • Carhop diner razed for CVS, bank - Oct. 29, 2007
  • Permit denied for feedlot near Minidoka - Oct. 25, 2007
  • No buyers for mid-century modern N.C. house - Oct. 24, 2007
  • Buffalo electric car factory reopens as artists' lofts - Oct. 23, 2007
  • Ocean City amusement park lives on - Oct. 22, 2007
  • Two power corridors approved - Oct. 18, 2007
  • Little Manila hotel unclaimed at auction - Oct. 17, 2007
  • Quantico Lustrons demolished - Oct. 16, 2007
  • Tower, barn rehabbed in Boston-area park - Oct. 15, 2007
  • Indiana city, county clash over historic house - Oct. 11, 2007
  • Free: Four Florida houses - Oct. 10, 2007
  • Edith Wharton's House wins award - Oct. 9, 2007
  • Nevada church reborn - Oct. 8, 2007
  • Berkeley residents fight to save 1940 rink - Oct. 4, 2007
  • Brooklyn's Domino Sugar refinery landmarked - Oct. 3, 2007
  • Quartered Calif. house awaits move - Oct. 2, 2007
  • Kansas mall to replace last house on the block - Oct. 1, 2007
  • Battle over Texas high school ends in demolition - Sept. 27, 2007
  • Boston's 19th-century jail reopens as luxury hotel - Sept. 26, 2007
  • Disney museum takes shape in Presidio - Sept. 25, 2007
  • Sullivan's last Chicago building renovated - Sept. 24, 2007
  • Saratoga Race Course's future up in the air - Sept. 20, 2007
  • Miss. says no to condos on Natchez Bluff - Sept. 19, 2007
  • S.C. foundation donates marshland to Drayton Hall - Sept. 18, 2007
  • Dairy farmer backs off from Calif. state park - Sept. 17, 2007
  • Volunteers help restore 18th-century house - Sept. 13, 2007
  • Omaha mattress factory becomes restaurant - Sept. 12, 2007
  • Demolition process begins on Ohio's Codebreaker Building 26 - Sept. 11, 2007
  • Developer damages 200-year-old farmhouse - Sept. 10, 2007
  • Standing up for Sitting Bull - Sept. 6, 2007
  • Fla. arsonists torch "haunted house" before its restoration - Sept. 5, 2007
  • Hawaii's Westminster Abbey adds new building - Sept. 4, 2007
  • Pa. developer to raze Main Line estate - Aug. 30, 2007
  • It's not over for Miami Beach's Coral Rock House - Aug. 29, 2007
  • Farnsworth House survives flood unscathed - Aug. 28, 2007
  • Starbucks to replace 19th-century N.H. house - Aug. 27, 2007
  • Palm Beach Theater wins in court - Aug. 23, 2007
  • Brad Pitt visits Farnsworth House - Aug. 22, 2007
  • Baltimore moves to landmark 1967 Brutalist theater - Aug. 21, 2007
  • Cumberland rescinds nomination of two endangered buildings - Aug. 20, 2007
  • Chicago's Cook County Hospital saved - Aug. 16, 2007
  • Developer signs conservation easement to protect S.C. plantation's view - Aug. 15, 2007
  • Despite landmark status, 1937 Houston shopping center will fall - Aug. 14, 2007
  • Protesters decry decision to raze Ohio courthouse - Aug. 13, 2007
  • WW II battleship could be sunk - Aug. 9, 2007
  • Once a lost cause, Dallas County Courthouse has been restored as a museum - Aug. 8, 2007
  • Restored Buffalo Bill billboard now on display - Aug. 7, 2007
  • Iowa voters can decide 1896 school's future, judge says - Aug. 6, 2007
  • City OKs demolition of 1924 chapel for condos - Aug. 2, 2007
  • Manhattan diner will move to Wyoming - Aug. 1, 2007
  • Campbell's can raze 1927 Sears store - July 31, 2007 More News >>
  • All Rights Reserved    © Preservation Magazine    Contact Us