Freedom Tower Architect Sues Developer

[Kadie]

Freedom Tower Architect Sues Developer

37 minutes ago


NEW YORK - The architect who created the master plan for the World Trade Center site filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming he is owed nearly $850,000 by the developer for creative services.


Daniel Libeskind estimated what he considers to be his fee based on public estimates of the $1.5 billion construction cost of the project, court papers say.


Despite negotiations over the past six months, court papers say site developer Larry Silverstein has refused to pay Libeskind's company "anything approaching the fair value of the services it rendered."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040714/ap_on_re_us/brf_attacks_freedom_tower_1

[thebigidea]

1. Ya might want have "estimated the fee" first, huh?

[NewYorkerfromMass]

2. It depends on the "agreement"

Architects frequently work for a fee which is a percentage of the cost of construction. They also, unfortunately, frequently end up working for free, given the problems negotiating what they consider to be a fair fee.

I notice in the stories I have read on this that Silverstein's lawyers say Libeskind has not produced timesheets to justify the hours he claims. That would be a big mistake on DL's part if he can't do that. Still, my sympathies are with Dan. We architects tend to get screwed.