Archinect - News

The lawsuit against SOM's alleged plagiarism of WTC continues by "the skin of its teeth," says judge

2019-10-18T11:03:00-04:00

Park claimed the design, construction and marketing of the tower ripped off a design he planned and modeled for his thesis at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1999. He said his thesis adviser was an associate partner at SOM and a second senior partner from the architectural firm also reviewed his work... The judge, however, wrote in a September order that these claims survive “only by the skin of their teeth, owing principally to the highly deferential standards on a motion to dismiss.”

Jeehon Park, a Georgia-based architect, sued Skidmore, Owings & Merril, Tishman Construction, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and The Durst Organization back in 2017.

According to The Real Deal, an SOM spokesperson said, "While it is positive that so much of the case was dismissed, SOM is still in the position of having to defend itself against these specious claims." He went on to express it "inexplicable" that "Park filed his suit after Tower One was completed and a full decade after the building's design was first unveiled," reports The Real Deal.

Park's design on the left. WTC on right.

Did SOM rip off this architect's designs for One World Trade Center?

2017-06-15T12:27:00-04:00

A Korean-born architect on Wednesday sued a major architecture firm over the design of Manhattan's One World Trade Center, claiming that the building bears a "striking similarity" to a tower he designed in 1999 while in graduate school. Jeehoon Park accused Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of falsely claiming design credit for the 104-story One World Trade Center, whose 1,776-foot (541 m) height including the spire makes it the Western Hemisphere's tallest building.

Park is president of Qube Architecture, a Georgia-based practice. His design, shown below, was made when he was getting a masters from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Park is seeking unspecified damages.

According to the architect, Skidmore has access to the design through an associate partner—one of Park's thesis advisors.

Park's design on the left, One World Trade Center on the right

Alejandro Zaera-Polo sues Princeton University for libel

2016-05-26T14:36:00-04:00

Former Princeton architecture dean Alejandro Zaera-Polo filed a lawsuit to the Superior Court of Mercer County earlier this week against Princeton University, claiming that the school is guilty of libel and breach of contract. Zaera-Polo was asked to resign from his position by President Christopher L. Eisgruber in October 2014 due to plagiarism allegations in texts that were used in the Exhibition Elements of Architecture at the 2014 Venice Biennale.

In an official response last March, Zaera-Polo wrote that his purpose of removing the academic citations in the texts was to create a more casual narrative for the general public, and that he “explicitly [states] the non-academic nature of the document, its speculative and polemic intent, and its non-suitability as a source.”

Neither the Superior Court of Mercer County's records department nor Zaera-Polo's attorneys have provided a copy of his complaint, reports say. Princeton University issued this statement regarding Zaera-Polo's pend...

Cities Compete to Host Legal Disputes

2014-09-12T12:53:00-04:00

The weeks and months of billable hours and protracted talks can translate to an economic lift for a host city catering to out-of-town investors and their lawyers and support staff, making municipalities worldwide eager to woo bickering parties [...] International locales like London and Paris traditionally have been favored — as well as centers of commerce like Hong Kong and Singapore for Asian disputes — but parties can agree to settle matters elsewhere.