Update on Kimmel: taking architecture to court

Or rather settling the case out of court, to avoid media bruhaha about the value of architect's design. That was close.

Ah, the complications of getting buildings built. There weren't any specified design flaws stated in the news, only that the ultimate cost of building the center was $180 million rather than the original $157 million.

Given all the criticism that is leveled at star-architect firms, among which Raphael Vinoly Associates is rising, especially about the dys-functionality of their buildings, I'm a tad surprised there aren't more court cases to settle structurally defective designs.

But only a tad. The cost of bringing such a case to court is high of course, and the number of people who may ultimately be responsible for a design flaw is also high. A team for a building design could consist of structural engineers, material engineers, operational engineers, and in this case, probably even a sound engineering firm, etc etc, all of whom inform the design. And my impression of the construction process for many large projects is that costs always continue to rise. But there is typically a designer of record, and Vinoly is it in this case.

I rather like the lush interior of the Kimmel Center main stage, and am sorry that it seems that the exterior doesn't quite work as well, though I think a lot of that is due to Philadelphia DOT's design of the street. I'm also sorry when I found out about this case, having worked with several fine architects at Vinoly just a couple years ago.