Oops, I Trashed Your Campus.

MIT sues Gehry, citing leaks in $300m complex
Blames famed architect for flaws at Stata Cent

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has filed a negligence suit against world-renowned architect Frank Gehry, charging that flaws in his design of the $300 million Stata Center in Cambridge, one of the most celebrated works of architecture unveiled in years, caused leaks to spring, masonry to crack, mold to grow, and drainage to back up.


The suit says that MIT paid Los Angeles-based Gehry Partners $15 million to design the Stata Center, which was hailed by critics as innovative and eye-catching with its unconventional walls and radical angles. But soon after its completion in spring 2004, the center's outdoor amphitheater began to crack due to drainage problems, the suit says. Snow and ice cascaded dangerously from window boxes and other projecting roof areas, blocking emergency exits and damaging other parts of the building, according to the suit. Mold grew on the center's brick exterior, the suit says, and there were persistent leaks throughout the building.

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Can't stop water...but it'll stop a truck bomb :)
Seriously just imagine what this moron will accomplish if he is allowed to build the sixteen skyscrapers and an arena in Brooklyn. Hell, Al Queda might not have to do anything - just sit back and wait for Frank's designs to self destruct. Want a clue why 'no other buildings' look like Frank Gehry's ? Same reason you don't see buildings with half a roof and a door in the ceiling...it doesn't work..

Even without the construction flaws this building is an absolute dud- according to wiki:

there are certainly many who are less enamoured of the structure. The use of glass for walls on the inside means that those who work in the building have to give up a sense of privacy. There is also one lecture room where, because of the slight lean of the walls, some people have been known to experience vertigo. Sound insulation is almost absent. The building has also been criticized as insensitive to the needs of its inhabitants, poorly designed for day-to-day use, and at an official cost $283.5 million, overpriced

Insensitive to the needs of inhabitants -well he's the perfect chap for Ratner, eh?


I would add that Gehry's design, according to a woman I knew who was at MIT, was intentionally confusing so people would bump into one another and spontaneously create (i couldn't make this stuff up if i tried) so you 'never knew who was around the corner....well you can imagine how women feel about working there after hours.....