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The trustees of London’s garden bridge, including actor Joanna Lumley and the former Labour minister Lord Davies, could have breached their legal duties over the failed project, that cost taxpayers more than £40m, according to a leading lawyer.
The legal opinion comes as pressure mounts for a formal investigation into how the charity behind the abandoned scheme spent so much money without construction work even beginning.
— The Guardian
"The decision to press on with the construction contract led to public losses, initially capped at £16m, increasing to an estimated total of £46m by the time the scheme was cancelled in 2017," The Guardian reports. "The project, championed by then London mayor, Boris Johnson, was intended to be... View full entry
As seas rise and coasts wash away, who owns the land that goes underwater? Versions of that debate are taking place in courtrooms, legislatures, and government offices, raising the question of whether and when climate change justifies seizing private property. The stakes are enormous, affecting not just ownership of offshore mineral and fishing rights but also potentially trillions of dollars of coastal real estate. — bloomberg.com
Climate change has left many rules governing real estate ownership murky. As sea levels rise this especially affects coastal property and laws hinging on high-tide lines. View full entry
Nearly two months after a brand-new South Florida bridge collapsed onto a busy roadway — killing six people — the Florida Department of Transportation is still refusing to release documents that could shed light on the tragic accident.
Now, the Miami Herald is taking the state to court. On Wednesday, the Herald filed suit against FDOT in Tallahassee's Leon County Circuit Court to compel the release of emails, meeting minutes and other records relating to the bridge's design and construction.
— miamiherald.com
Just days before the FIU bridge collapsed, cracks had been observed on the structure. A meeting was held by the university and the FDOT the morning of the collapse on whether these cracks were a safety risk. The Miami Herald requested records from that meeting and other documents, which have been... View full entry
The Frost Science Museum has been open for nearly a year, and it’s already been visited by almost 1 million people. But it’s not finished, and the nonprofit and the general contractor are fighting over who should pay to complete the work.
The museum faces a lawsuit from its main contractor claiming the nonprofit unfairly held back payments and left construction work undone as budget strains forced it to cut costs in the final months of building the mostly tax-funded $300 million project [...].
— Miami Herald
"Frost is already in litigation with its original contractor, Suffolk Construction, which the museum fired in 2014, two years after starting one of the most complicated construction projects in the Southeast," the Miami Herald reports.Grimshaw Architects designed the ambitious museum complex in... View full entry
[...] a judge has ruled that a New York developer must pay $6.7 million to a group of graffiti artists to compensate for painting over their work without warning in 2013. The decision represents a decisive victory for street artists in a case that pitted their rights against those of a real estate executive.
The artists sued the developer, Gerald Wolkoff, for violating their rights after he whitewashed their work at the famous 5Pointz art mecca in Long Island City to make way for condos.
— artnet
Citing protection of the artists'—historically significant but ultimately destroyed—works at 5Pointz under the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA), Judge Frederic Block ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in this closely watched landmark case: "Since 5Pointz was a prominent tourist attraction... View full entry
At Leicester magistrates court, Herzallah and Almasri, of Enderby, Leicestershire, were each ordered to pay a £770 fine, legal costs of £1,252 and a £77 victim surcharge. — The Guardian
A couple, who had disguised housing on their property with a fake garage door, has been fined by Leicester Magistrates Court. The case was brought about by the Blaby district council after they were notified about unauthorized work being carried out at the couple's home and discovered the hoax... View full entry
Was the street art covering 5Pointz, a largely empty warehouse in Long Island City, Queens, significant enough to preserve under US federal law? A federal judge in Brooklyn in currently considering the arguments in a case that tests the limits of the Visual Artists Rights Act (Vara), and could soon decide whether a developer Gerald Wolkoff and his companies violated the act when he tore down the graffiti-covered building to construct residential towers and what, if any, damages they will pay. — The Art Newspaper
Wolkoff granted permission to artists to paint on the building in 1993, when Long Island City wasn’t hot property....Fast forward to 2013, New York real estate was exploding. The building’s location was highly desirable. — Quartz
5 Pointz, located in Long Island City, was an American mural space considered to be the world's premier graffiti mecca. Bought by developer Jerry Wolkoff in 1971, the building's exterior was graffitied over with a myriad of street art when Wolkoff started leasing space as artists' studios in the... View full entry
Jason and Jodi Chapnik, who live in a multi-million dollar home on Strathearn Rd., filed a lawsuit against their neighbours for remodeling a nearby property on Vesta Dr. to look “strikingly similar” to their house. — The Star
The couple sued their neighbors for $2.5 million—$1.5 million in damages, $20,000 in statutory copyright damages, $1 million in punitive damages, and a mandatory injunction on the defendant to change the design of the home. The lawsuit was filed against their neighbor Barbara Ann Kirshenblatt... View full entry
The alleged deception: The retailers market and sell the hefty lumber as 4x4s without specifying that the boards actually measure 3½ inches by 3½ inches...The retailers say the allegations are bogus. It is common knowledge and longstanding industry practice, they say, that names such as 2x4 or 4x4 do not describe the width and thickness of those pieces of lumber. — Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel
Taking literal interpretations to a new, class-action-lawsuit extreme, a group of men are suing Home Depot and Menard's for failing to specifically label their 4 X 4s as being 3.5" X 3.5" (one can only imagine the litigious hurt and fury when these men discover that Aunt Jemima's Syrup is not made... View full entry
Taking the view that the owner of the Philharmonie had modified and thus defiled his architectural work, Jean Nouvel had sued ... asking the court to order the owner to perform all works necessary for the restoration of his work so as to comply with the architectural plans he had initially drawn. [...]
The case at hand renews the debate on the difficulties of granting remedies which constitute an acceptable way to balance the proprietor's rights and the moral rights of architects.
— lexology.com
Get caught up on Nouvel's dispute with the Philharmonie:Jean Nouvel loses court case over 'sabotaged' Philharmonie de ParisJean Nouvel files for court order against Philharmonie de Paris disputeJean Nouvel boycotts opening of his Philharmonie de Paris View full entry
The curvy, twisted glass facade of media mogul Barry Diller’s IAC Building on West 18th Street and 11th Avenue is facing a sticky problem: The window sealant has become a dripping, opaque blob, according to a lawsuit.
“Nearly all of the windows have significant and visible defects,” the building’s owners claim in the suit against Permasteelisa North America, the company that installed the unique facade of the building designed by the acclaimed architect.
— nypost.com
More Gehry-news on Archinect:Frank Gehry and Maya Lin to receive Presidential Medal of FreedomFrank Gehry might bail on the U.S. now that Trump's been electedFrank Gehry's Sunset Strip mixed-user unanimously approved by L.A. City CouncilGehry's modified Eisenhower Memorial design accepted by... View full entry
It’s the all-too-common hazard that buyers of multimillion-dollar homes often overlook: Disagreements between homeowners can turn even the nicest neighborhoods into war zones. These disputes can happen anywhere, but in wealthy communities, the tendency to lawyer up quickly can ignite small sparks into all-consuming conflagrations. Collateral damage to neighbors can include legal costs, a soured neighborhood feeling and more difficulty in selling homes. — wsj.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:Don’t Like Your Neighbors’ House? Sue Them.Hearing begins for "modernist" North Carolina home threatened with demolitionCouple sues architect for allegedly copying their dream house View full entry
Peter Marino, the leather-clad architect best known for his collaborations with fashion labels, was sued last year for racial discrimination by a former employee. Now, he's accusing the employee of making homophobic slurs, according to a report by the New York Post.Deirdre O'Brien worked for... View full entry
Whatever the outcome, we will learn from their actions. I am confident that those who committed wrongdoing will be held accountable, and that any malfeasance will come to light. I am also confident that the final story will adequately celebrate all the good that AFH did. — medium.com
Garrett Jacobs, executive director of the Open Architecture Collaborative, responded to the $3M lawsuit against AFH via a statement on medium, taking care to make clear as crystal the fact that while OAC grew out of AFH, it is "unequivocally an independent organization, a California LLC and Public... View full entry