The construction of the long -awaited library and the museum of former President Barack Obama in Chicago began with ambitious plans for diversity, equity and inclusion (dei), but is now plagued by enormous cost overruns, delays and a $ 40.75 million, racial Charged lawsuit submitted by a minority. contractor.
From the start, the Endeavor dei praised as an important part of Obama’s inheritance on the 19.3 hectare site, where the costs in the first $ 350 million to $ 830 million in 2021 are blended for updated costs. The project set out “Ambitious Goals” for certain quotas of the building diversity, whereby his contracts had to be assigned to “various suppliers”, 35% of which had to be on minority -based companies (MBEs).
“With these aggressive goals, the foundation hopes to set a new precedent for diversity and recording in large construction projects in Chicago and beyond,” wrote the Obama Foundation in a 2017 press release.
Former President Obama and his presidential center. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg, Left, and Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images, right.)
The importance of Dei was cited several times in an explosive lawsuit that was filed last month by Robert McGee, the black co-owner of II in one construction. The company is a business subcontractor of minorities that has provided concrete and negligent services for the center.
McGee claimed that he and his company were racially discriminated against by Thornton Tomasetti, a company in New York that supervises structural engineering and design services.
In the court case, McGee claims that Thornton Tomasetti has changed the standards and has imposed new rules on the requirements for the ranking and tolerance that differed from the norms of the American Concrete Institute. The suit claims that these changes have led to his company resulting in mass exceedances of more than $ 40 million, which it stated with bankruptcy.
McGee’s lawsuit stems from a memorandum Thornton Tomasetti wrote about a year ago to the leading construction partners of the project and claimed that II was responsible for numerous challenges during the project in one – and the contracting company that worked on the project.
The memorandum contained images of cracked plates and exposed reinforcement steel to support its claims. Thornton Tomasetti said it spent hundreds of hours assessing, analyzing, re -designing and responding to corrective activities and that subcontractors caused ‘a multitude of problems in the field’.
“The building problems were all unambiguously driven by the underperformance and inexperience of the concrete subcontractor,” says the memorandum.
Thornton Tomasetti said that the challenges with the concrete were only due to the subcontractors and wrote that it “cannot stay while contractors blame their own shortcomings of the design team.”
The memo also explains that Thornton Tomasetti and an architectural firm “Bent back to help what everyone knows was a doubtful qualified subcontractor team in areas where a more qualified subcontractor would not have required it.”
The presidential center of Obama is shown this week. (Fox News)
That Memorandum served as the basis of McGee’s lawsuit last month, because he claims that it contained “unfounded criticism and defamatory and discriminatory accusations”. ”
The lawsuit claims that Thornton Tomasetti undermined the diversity and inclusion goals of the project, which were set out in the project’s general contract. The lawsuit also mentions a dei report by the construction manager of the project in 2022, which the project outlines “reaching considerably diverse business participation”. A report that the demography of those involved in the project was released in April was also released in April.
The lawsuit claims that the claimants were “subject to unjustified and discriminatory behavior … that the dei goals and obligations of the Obama Foundation directly undermined, and the mission to bring transformative change in the construction sector and local community by offering solutions to Barriers that are reportedly have many disadvantaged companies prevented participating in projects of this size.
The lawsuit claims that Thornton Tomasetti has violated the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and that its alleged “defamatory and discriminatory statements and actions” II in one, Bob McGee and the other subcontractors, ran for extreme financial losses and potential bankruptcy.
The lawsuit claims that Thornton Tomasetti II discriminated in one ‘based on race’.
McGee claims that Thornton Tomasetti II wrongly accused in one of the lack of sufficient qualifications and experience to perform his work, while stating in the memo that non-less contractors were sufficiently qualified.
The lawsuit also claims that the Obama Foundation relied on the memo of Thornton Tomasetti for not paying the subcontractors of around $ 40.75 million for “extra costs” on the site near Jackson Park In Chicago.
McGee’s lawsuit refutes the allegations in the memo of Thornton Tomasetti that his company was inexperienced or doubtful, pointing to II’s 40-year-old track record in the industry and the completion of large Chicagoland projects, including Millennium Park, Harold Washington Center, And the American Airlines Terminal on O’Hare Airport.
In a memo, Thornton Tomasetti shared statues of cracked plate and exposed reinforcement steel. (Court case)
“Moreover, Bob McGee was aware and supported the Diversity and Inclusion Goals of the Obama Foundation for the project and he never thought that the structural engineer of the Obama Foundation would disintegrate a subcontractor of minorities for unfair criticism and false II in a Lack of sufficient qualifications and experience to perform his work, while, in the same letter, stating that the non-less contractors were sufficiently qualified, “is the memo.
“In a shocking and discouraging turn of events, the Afro -American owner of a local construction company is and his company on the edge of forced closure due to racial discrimination by the structural engineer,” is the court case. “II in one and his joint venture partners … was subject to unfounded criticism and defamatory and discriminatory accusations of the structural engineer of the Obama Foundation, Thornton Tomasetti.”
The Obama Foundation said it is not a party to this lawsuit and insisted that it will not cause delays in the concrete work, which it says is largely completed.
“If the foundation believed that a supplier was trading with a racist intention, we would immediately take appropriate measures,” Emily Bittner, the vice -president of Communications at the Obama Foundation, recently told Fox News Digital in a statement. The foundation did not respond to requests for information about the updated costs of the project.
The presidential center of Obama wants the political career of the first honor President Barack Obama. It will consist of a museum, a library, conference facilities, a gymnasium and an NBA court sofa the size of regulations. It will also house the non -profit Obama Foundation, which supervises the development of the center.
View: Obama Presidential Center expects to open in 2026
The project has had to deal with problems in the past. Initially, construction was expected to start in 2018, but it was postponed until 2021. It was planned to open somewhere in 2026.
Some community activists claim the New center Will increase the prices for houses and rent and many of those who live in the area can prices. Environmental activists have also been critical of the project, with the argument that it would remove too many trees and destroy some bird habitats.
Activists threatened to sue the developments, but the plan to build the center was approved shortly after a lawsuit was brought, according to Newsweek. The supreme Court refused to hear the request to hear the case in 2021.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, left, joins former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama in a ceremonial groundbreaking in the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park on 28 September 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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Representatives for II in one refused to comment. Fox News Digital also contacted representatives for Thornton Tomasetti for comment.
Judicial documents show that on January 31 Thornton Tomasetti, Inc. and Scott A. Schneider, a senior director and structural engineer at the company, submitted an extension of time to answer the complaint. The court extended the deadline for their answer until March 5, 2025.
Michael Lew contributed to this report.
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