The county will be seeking to recover some of the damages, or expenses the county had to pay other contractors as a result of what we will claim to be HOK’s breach of contract [HOK] lacked coordination and completion and had conflicts, errors and omissions in the design drawings.” — County attorney Ed Remsburg
It's unsure of who Polk County is actually suing since HOK spun-off its athletic and events business in 2008– HOK Sport Venue Event and HOK Group Inc. came to agreement in a transfer of ownership with shareholders agreeing to the buy out. In March of 2009, HOK Sport Venue Event rebranded itself "Populous" which was a stipulation in the previous buyout agreement. The Des Moines Register, KCCI Des Moines and the Daily Aljian, however, are reporting the potential lawsuit is against Populous, HOK Sport or HOK.
The lawsuit is the result of a 5-0 vote from the Polk County Board of Supervisors to reclaim $5,000,000 in settled claims, 15 in total, filed by contractors. The contractors allege that design errors and omissions caused them undue hardship during the construction of the facility. The county now wants Populous to foot the settlement bill. The Iowa Events Center was completed in 2005 to the tune of $218,000,000– HOK, now Populous, was paid $18,565,130 for architectural and design work.
As reported in the Des Moines Register, Ed Remsburg said that the county wanted to discuss the matter but "couldn't get them [Populous] to commit to a time to attempt to settle it."
1 Comment
So the architect made about an 8.5% fee on that huge building. Not bad.
And the comments at the Des Moines Register article show yet again how much people hate our profession. Sigh.
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