Design: Follow-Up -- M.I.T. Sues Gehry Over Dysfunctional Form

Drunken mold covered leaky robot party

For the tens of you who enjoyed my form over function piece today brings a follow-up. Starchitect Frank Gehry who designed M.I.T.'s Stata Center the poster child for John Silber's book Architecture of the Absurd, is being sued by his client over mold, leaks, cracks and drainage problems. Predictably Gehry points the finger at the construction company and the construction company points right back at him.

Gehry described the building as being like a track off of Beck's Midnite Vultures album or -- in his actual words -- as what "...a party of drunken robots got together to celebrate.." would look like. Having been surrounded by a group of drunk robots in Tokyo, I can confirm that they also have drainage problems, and leak, though I was the one with the crack. As regards the lawsuit Gehry says simply: "I think the issues are fairly minor... M.I.T. is after our insurance.” Here's the New York Times article.