An engineering firm that works in the Obama Presidential Center says it claims that it racial has discriminated against a black subcontractor in the project, is unfounded and comes down to smears and that simply criticizing the work of the subcontractors does not amount to racism.
Thornton Tomasetti, a structural engineering firm based in New York-City, responded to an explosive lawsuit of $ 40.75 million that the accused of racist intention when it was the alleged underperformance of a black-owned bonus company at 19.3-ACRES-Site-site-site Jackson Park from Chicago.
The lawsuit has drawn national attention on the goals for diversity, shares and inclusion (dei) that are based on the project, which is plagued by delays and costs ballooning from an initial $ 350 million to $ 830 million. The center wants to honor the political career of former President Barack Obama and will consist of a Tower Museum of 235 feet, a branch of the Chicago Public Library and conference facilities, including facilities.
Former President Obama and the Obama Presidential Center under construction. An engineering firm that is working on the project says it claims that it racially discriminates against a black subcontractor in the project, is unfounded and comes down to smears. (Ian Forsyth/Getty images)
Thornton Tomasetti previously told the Obama Foundation, the non-profit that supervises the project, that a multitude of problems, including cracked concrete and exposed reinforcement steel by the subcontractor, led to corrective work and that the subcontractor was inexperienced and “doubtfully qualified”.
The subcontractor company, II in one concrete, said that the criticism came down to racial bias and the $ 40.75 million lawsuit filed to earn back the costs of the extra work it had to do after requests from Thornton Tomasetti.
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In a motion to be submitted on Tuesday, Thornton Tomasetti said the court case that it was racist “without a piece of factual support” and said that II leaned in one concrete on his minority status to make the claims.
The center has been plotted Challenge For his building contracts, where 35% of the subcontractors must be a minority possession. II in one was one of the three companies that together formed a 51% of minorities led Joint-Venture team.
“Plaintiffs … are not immune to investigating their work, simply because they are the minority possession, or because the project prioritizes the use of the services of companies in minority possession,” wrote lawyers for Thornton Tomasetti. “Instead, they have the right to be treated as any other subcontractor, with all advanced disagreements and disputes that are accompanied by huge projects such as this.”
“Professional criticism, without a doubt, is not racism.”
The Obama Presidential Center is expected to open next year. (Fox News Digital)
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II In the lawsuit of one concrete comes from a memorandum Thornton Tomasetti, wrote about a year ago to the Obama Foundation and claimed that II in one – and the contract companies with whom it worked on the project – were responsible for numerous construction challenges during the project.
In the Memo, Thornton Tomasetti blamed the subcontractors and wrote that the goal of the memo was to defend their own services. It supervises structural engineering and design services on the site.
II in the court case of one concrete claims that the Obama Foundation on the memo trusted the non -paying of the subcontractors of around $ 40.75 million for “extra costs”, which resulted from the corrective work and II in one concrete at the point of bankruptcy.
A prolonged shot from the presidential center of Obama. (Fox News Digital)
II in one concrete owner, Robert McGee, who is black, argues II was discriminated against “on the basis of race” and that claimants “were subject to unjustified and discriminatory behavior … that directly undermined the Dei objectives and commitments of the Obama Foundation.”
McGee claims that Thornton Tomasetti II wrongly accused in one of the lack of sufficient qualifications and experience to perform his work, while stated that non-less contractors were sufficiently qualified.
McGee’s lawsuit points to II in the 40-year track record in the industry and the completion of large Chicagoland projects. McGee claims that Thornton Tomasetti has changed the standards and has imposed new rules on the requirements for Rebar distance and tolerance that differed from the industrial standards.
In Tuesday’s motion to dismiss, Thornton Tomasetti argued that the requirements of the reinforcement distance were part of the bid documents and contract specifications. Moreover, Thornton Tomasetti said that there were a wide range of other problems that it had identified in the memo the lawsuit Not tackled.
“And although the allegations of the claimants determine the specifications of the reinforcement, they ignore the wider image – TT (Thornton Tomasetti) marked numerous other critical lack of work in the memo, who do not recognize plaintiffs, let alone refute the submission of Tuesday. “Plaintiffs cannot just pick one of the many criticism of their work of TT and it is natural to be self -evident discrimination, while they are silent about the Panophy of other problems set out in the memo.”
Thornton Tomasetti wrote that the complaint – who is accused of racial bias, defamation and unlawful interference with the contract – is and must be rejected.
In a memo, Thornton Tomasetti shared statues of cracked plate and exposed reinforcement steel. (Court case)
“Eisers beweren feiten die plausibel een beeld van racisme schetsen (er zijn geen vermeende racistische opmerkingen, geen waargenomen raciale vooringenomenheid en geen feiten die discriminerende behandeling tonen), maar ook omdat ze toegeven dat Thornton Tomasetti’s acties motiveerde – niet door een geavanceerde discriminatie – maar door een wens om hun diensten te verdedigen in de eerste plaats in de eerste plaats in de eerste plaats in de eerste In the first place, place in the first place in the first place.
“The complaint must be rejected and the door is concluded in the shameful proposition of claimants that companies owned by minorities are exempt from control, criticism or the need to meet project specifications, but ‘burdensome’.
Fox News Digital reached contact with the Obama Foundation and a representative for McGee for comment, but received no response.
The Obama Foundation previously told Fox News Digital that it is not a party to the court case and it insisted that it would not cause delays in the concrete work, which it says it has already been 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.
Illinois Gov. closes from left to right. JB Pritzker is held with former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama in a ceremonial groundbreaking in the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park on September 28, 2021 in Chicago. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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The Obama Presidential Library is expected to open some time next year and will also house digitized documents from home Former President Obama’s Time in function, a gymnasium and an NBA court the size of a regulation. It will also house the Obama Foundation.
The center is financed private and will not be considered an official presidential library such as other presidential libraries run by the National Archives and Records Administration System. The movement gives the foundation a greater flexibility around its size, designs and public spaces.
The Obama Presidential Library is currently in Hoffman Estates in Northwest Chicago. The Department of Government Efficiency, guided by the Elon Musk, has terminated the lease on the site, although it is expected to close later this year and Go to College Park in Maryland.
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