MIT Alleges Flaws in Frank Gehry’s Building

8 November 2007 | Category: Architecture Rumbling
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According to Yahoo News, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is suing renowned architect Frank Gehry, alleging serious design flaws in the Stata Center, a building celebrated for its unconventional walls and radical angles.

The $300 million building was completed in 2004, it houses labs, offices, classrooms and meeting rooms, within a few years, it has persistent leaks, accumulation of snow, growth of mold on exterior brick walls and many more, causing the school untold damages. What makes this whole issue so interesting is the amount of money paid by MIT for Gehry’s design – a whopping $15million.

$15million! That is crazy, any idea how much Zaha Hadid charge for something similiar?

Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Stata Center in Cambridge frank gehry
Image Source: Wikipedia.

Gehry’s respond?

In an interview, Mr. Gehry, whose firm was paid $15 million for the project, said construction problems were inevitable in the design of complex buildings. “These things are complicated,” he said, “and they involved a lot of people, and you never quite know where they went wrong. A building goes together with seven billion pieces of connective tissue. The chances of it getting done ever without something colliding or some misstep are small.” “I think the issues are fairly minor,” he added. “M.I.T. is after our insurance.” Mr. Gehry said “value engineering” — the process by which elements of a project are eliminated to cut costs — was largely responsible for the problems. “There are things that were left out of the design,” he said. “The client chose not to put certain devices on the roofs, to save money. – Wikipedia

Gehry said: “A building goes together with seven billion pieces of connective tissue. The chances of it getting done ever without something colliding or some misstep are small”

I wonder, does Antonio Gaudi’s building suffer the same fate?

Perhaps they should emulate the Germans, a super mario look alike rain water down pipe system in Germany, it appears to be some art and performance center – the official website.

rain water down pipe unique germany german

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7 Comments

What says you? Drop your opinion in the comment box.

  1. Sky
    on November 8th, 2007
    1

    5% of estimated construction costs is not unusual for architectural fees. I’m not sure if you are aware of the costs of doing business as an architect, especially one that does work that falls out of standard practice detailing.

  2. Calvin
    on November 8th, 2007
    2

    5% out of 300 million is still a huge amount of money. MIT should have just paid Gehry on lump sum basis. say 5 million.

  3. BarnaStil
    on November 9th, 2007
    3

    5% is a bargain…the going rate in Spain is 13%. It probably changes according to negotiations because 13% of 300 million would be huge. But, then again architects in Spain are also engineers and project managers so maybe 13% isn´t that bad.

  4. Hoffer
    on November 9th, 2007
    4

    lets face it gehry is a shit architect. His designs are so complex and never fit in or even acknowledge their surroundings be it site, climate etc. Anyone after having smoked a reefer could imagine designs like his..

  5. anne
    on November 9th, 2007
    5

    I don’t see you asking what Skanska’s (the General Contractor) fee is, which was probably more like $40 million. And they actually signed a contract that obligated them to provide a useful building.
    let’s face it — MIT is a sophisticated client and no one goes to Gehry to get an IKEA box. the project was probably in design for 3 years, the Owner had the right to say “uh… this is too weird for us” but didn’t, and Skanska took on the construction contract.

  6. David
    on November 16th, 2007
    6

    Calvin, no 5% is too little for a specialised building like this one. The building houses specialised labs and a complex program. For design of hospitals, the going fee is at least 12%. If he had charged 5 million, he would be screwing himself. There was a presentation by Bill Mitchell of MIT, and the process of designing this building was quite elaborate.

    As for the leaking, we cannot fault the architect primarily. Up to 30% of all buildings will experience some form of water ingress in the first 18 months. Up to 80% of buildings will experience some form of water ingress within the first 10 years.

    Defects liability period spans for 2 years in most cases, but contractor liability spans for 7 years at the very least.

  7. Sestimator
    on November 21st, 2008
    7

    Ghery’s right. Value engineering and cost-cutting is the bane of construction these days. Skanka is notorious in the construction industry for eating it’s young and value engineering to cover the fact that the under bid projects for the win and then try to take the costs out of the job so they can get the profit back.

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