Eli Broad museum files $19.8 million lawsuit over delays

The Eli and Edythe Broad museum, currently under construction in Los Angeles, is suing German architectural fabricator Seele "for what it describes as delays in fabricating the building blocks for its unusual latticed facade," the New York Times reports.

The museum was slated to open by the end of this year, but its opening date has been pushed back to 2015. The $19.8 million suit was filed on Friday.

Here's more about the design by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, courtesy The Broad Art Foundation www.thebroad.org:

With its innovative “veil-and-vault” concept, the 120,000-sf, $140 million building will feature two floors of gallery space to showcase the Broad’s comprehensive collections and will be the headquarters of The Broad Art Foundation’s worldwide lending library.

Dubbed “the veil and the vault,” the museum’s design merges the two key components of the building: public exhibition space and archive/storage. Rather than relegate the archive/storage to secondary status, the “vault,” plays a key role in shaping the museum experience from entry to exit. Its heavy opaque mass is always in view, hovering midway in the building.

Its carved underside shapes the lobby below, while its top surface is the floor plate of the exhibition space. The vault is enveloped on all sides by the “veil,” an airy, honeycomb-like structure that spans across the block-long gallery and provides filtered natural daylight.

The project team members include owner Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York; design architect and interior designer of the restaurant, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York; executive architect, FXFOWLE, New York; and architect and interior designer of the film center, Rockwell Group, New York; structural engineer Arup (AISC Member), New York; and general contractor Turner Construction Company (AISC Member), New York.

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Agglomerated tiles offer an appealing appearance similar to natural stone at a lower cost. To achieve successful installations, manufacturers should provide design data for moisture-related dimensional changes, specifiers should require in-situ moisture testing similar to those used for other flooring materials, and the industry should develop standards for fabrication and installation of agglomerated tiles.