A Chicago-based subcontractor is suing one of the firms managing the construction of the Obama Presidential Center for $40 million, alleging that racially discriminatory practices forced it to take on extra work, pushing the company to the brink of bankruptcy.
Fox News reports that Robert McGee, owner of II in One, which has provided concrete and rebar services for the project since 2021, filed the lawsuit in federal court last month against New York-based Thornton Tomasetti. The company is responsible for structural engineering and design services for the $830 million center, according to the suit.
McGee claims that Thornton Tomasetti altered standards and imposed new requirements for rebar spacing and tolerance that deviated from American Concrete Institute guidelines. These changes, he argues, led to “excessively rigorous and unnecessary inspection,” resulting in significant cost overruns.
McGee claims that the additional paperwork significantly hindered productivity and led to millions of dollars in losses, according to the lawsuit.
However, nearly a year ago, Thornton Tomasetti defended its actions, stating in a memo related to the lawsuit that the subcontractors were “questionably qualified” and that the delays were a result of their own deficiencies, Fox reported.
The Obama Presidential Center is being built near Jackson Park in Chicago and will include a museum, library, and community and conference facilities. The center will also house the nonprofit Obama Foundation, which is managing the development and runs a scholarship program through the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.
McGee alleges that Thornton Tomasetti falsely accused II in One of lacking the necessary qualifications and experience to perform its work while asserting that non-minority-owned contractors were adequately qualified.
He is seeking reimbursement for approximately $40 million in construction costs that his firm, along with its joint venture partner Concrete Collective, covered, Fox added.
“In a shocking and disheartening turn of events, the African American owner of a local construction company finds himself and his company on the brink of forced closure because of racial discrimination by the structural engineer,” the lawsuit says. “II in One and its joint venture partners… was subjected to baseless criticisms and defamatory and discriminatory accusations by the Obama Foundation’s structural engineer, Thornton Tomasetti.”
But Thornton Tomasetti countered in an attached February 2024 memo that construction costs and delays “were all unequivocally driven by the underperformance and inexperience” of the subcontractor, II in One. Thornton Tomasetti shared images of a cracked slab and exposed rebar in the memo.
Thornton Tomasetti, in the memo, informed Obama Foundation leadership that it spent hundreds of hours reviewing, analyzing, redesigning, and addressing corrective work, stating that contractors were responsible for “a multitude of problems in the field.”
Thornton Tomasetti stated that the issues with the concrete were entirely due to the contractors’ performance. “We cannot stand by while contractors attempt to blame their own shortcomings on the design team,” the memo states.
It goes on to say Thornton Tomasetti and an architectural firm “bent over backwards to assist what everyone knows was a questionably qualified subcontractor team in areas where more qualified subcontractor would not have required it.”
Fox noted further that the project has faced several challenges. Construction, originally scheduled to begin in 2018, was delayed until 2021 and is now set to open in 2026.
Community activists have raised concerns that the new center will drive up home and rent prices, potentially displacing many local residents. Environmental activists have also criticized the project, arguing that it would result in the removal of too many trees and harm bird habitats.
While activists threatened to sue to block the development, the plan to build the center was nevertheless approved shortly after a lawsuit was filed, as reported by Newsweek. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case in 2021.