The construction of the long -awaited library and the museum of the former President Barack Obama began with ambitious plans for diversity, equity and inclusion (Dei), but is now a lawsuit described by a minority of 40, 75 million US dollars plagued by a minority.
From the beginning, the endeavor was the important part of Enshrining Obama's legacy on the 19.3 hectare site, where the costs in 2021 from the first annual reports from $ 350 million to 830 million US for updated costs. The project determined “ambitious goals” for certain quotas for building diversity, with its contracts “various suppliers” being assigned, of which 35% of which had to be minority -based companies (MBes).
“With these aggressive goals, the foundation hopes to create a new precedent for diversity and inclusion in important construction projects in Chicago and beyond,” wrote the Obama Foundation in a press release from 2017.
The importance of Dei was made several times in an explosive lawsuit that was submitted in a construction last month by Robert McGee, the black co -owner of II. The company is a subcontractor in possession of minorities who provided the center of concrete and reinforcement services.
It is not clear what role Dei -quotas played in the setting of II in one as a subcontractor. II in one was one of three companies that formed a joint venture called concrete collective. The other companies included another minority company called Trice Construction Company together with We O'Neil. Together they formed a 51% minority-LED-Joint venture team.
McGee claimed that he and his company were discriminated against by Thornton Tomasetti, a company based in New York, which supervises structural engineering and design services.
In the lawsuit, McGee claims that Thornton Tomasetti has changed the standards and imposed new rules for the distance and tolerance requirements for reinforcement strength, which differed from the standards of the American Concrete Institute. The lawsuit claims that these changes had led to his company increased massive exceedance of more than 40 million US dollars, which she put on bankruptcy.
McGee's lawsuit results from a memorandum Thornton Tomasetti, which was written to the leading construction partners of the project about a year ago, and claims that II in a – and the contract company with which it had come together in the project – for numerous challenges are responsible during the project.
The memorandum contained pictures of cunning plates and exposed reinforcement rods to support its claims. Thornton Tomasetti said that hundreds of hours spent checking correction work, analyzing, redesigning and reacting to correction work, and that subcontractors caused “a variety of problems in the field”.
“The construction problems were all clearly driven by the underperformance and inexperience of the concrete subcontractor,” explains the memorandum.
Thornton Tomasetti said that the challenges with the concrete were only due to the subcontractors and wrote that it cannot “be available, while contractors are trying to blame their own defects in the design team”.
In the memo, it can be said that Thornton Tomasetti and an architectural company “bent back to help what everyone knows, a questionably qualified subcontract team in areas where a more qualified subcontractor would not have needed it.”
This memorandum served as the basis for McGees in the past month, since it claims that “unfounded criticisms and defaming and discriminatory accusations”.
In the lawsuit it is claimed that Thornton Tomasetti has undermined the project and inclusion goals of the project, which were described in the general contract of the project. The lawsuit also quotes a DEI report by the project manager of the project in 2022, in which the project is described as a “significant diverse division of business”. A report was also published in April.
The lawsuit claims participation in projects of this size. “
In the lawsuit it is claimed that Thornton Tomasetti has violated the civil rights law of 1866 and that his alleged “defamatory and discriminatory statements and measures” in one, bob McGee and the other subcontractors have led to extreme financial losses and potential bankruptcy.
In the lawsuit it is claimed that Thornton Tomasetti II has discriminated against “on the basis of the breed”.
McGee claims that Thornton Tomasetti incorrectly accused Tomasetti II of being sufficient qualifications and experience to do his work and explained in the memo that non-mere contractors were sufficiently qualified.
The lawsuit also claims that the Obama Foundation is dependent on Thornton Tomasetti's memo in Chicago.
McGees Lawn refutes the allegations in Thornton Tomasettis Memo that his company is inexperienced or questionable and II in the 40-year track record in the industry and the conclusion of large Chicagoland projects such as Millennium Park, Harold Washington Cultal Center and the American Airlines Terminal At O'Hare Airport.
“In addition, Bob McGee was aware of the diversity and inclusion goals of the Obama Foundation for the project and never supports the fact that the structural engineer of the Obama Foundation would accuse a subcontractor in the possession of minorities for unfair criticism and incorrectly in one of sufficient qualifications and experience to to carry out his work, while in the same letter the information from the non-minority companies was sufficiently qualified, “says the memo.
“In a shocking and discouraging turn of the events, the African -American owner of a local construction company and his company is about the forced closure, since the civil engineer is discriminated against racistically,” says the lawsuit. “II in one and his joint venture partners … was suspended by the civil engineer of the Obama Foundation, Thornton Tomasetti, unfounded criticisms and defaming and discriminatory accusations.”
The Obama Foundation said it was not a party of this lawsuit and insisted that it would not cause any delays in the specific work, which has already been largely completed.
“If the foundation was of the opinion that a provider acted with a racist intention, we would immediately take appropriate measures,” said Emily Bittner, Vice President of Communication at the Obama Foundation, in a statement to FOX News Digital. The foundation did not respond to inquiries about information on the updated costs of the project.
The Obama Presidential Center aims to honor the political career of former President Barack Obama. It will consist of a museum, a library, conference facilities, a high school and an NBA dish in the regular size. The non -profit Obama foundation will also accommodate the development of the center.
The subcontractor of the Obama Center raised a claim for discrimination against $ 40 million against engineering companies for excesses
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The project was confronted with problems in the past. The construction was expected to start in 2018, but was delayed until 2021. It will be opened at some point in 2026.
Some community activists claim that the new center will cause prices for houses and rent to increase, and possibly many of those who live in the region. Environmental activists also criticized the project and argued that it would remove too many trees and destroy some bird life rooms.
Activists threatened to sue to block the developments, but according to NewWeek, the plan for the construction of the center was approved shortly after a lawsuit was submitted. The Supreme Court submitted the application to hear the case in 2021.
Representatives for II rejected it to make a comment. Fox News Digital also contacted representatives of Thornton Tomasetti to get a comment.
Court documents show that Thornton Tomasetti, Inc. and Scott A. Schneider, a high -ranking director and civil engineer of the company, submitted an extension of time to answer the complaint. The court extended the deadline for her answer to March 5, 2025.
Michael Lew from Fox News contributed to this report.