Source: http://www.bizjournals.com, December 19, 2016
By: Daniel J. Sernovitz

The team behind the $124 million Ballou Senior High School modernization is seeking at least $2 million in damages from the project’s architects over claims they delivered incomplete design plans for the Southeast D.C. building.

Chiaramonte-Hess, a joint venture between Chiaramonte Construction Co. and Hess Construction & Engineering Services Inc., said it based its guaranteed maximum price on design documents for the D.C. public school building. But it claims those design documents were “incomplete, uncoordinated and not ready for construction,” despite representations to the contrary from the project’s architects, according to a lawsuit Chiaramonte-Hess filed Nov. 18 in D.C. Superior Court.

Chiaramonte-Hess sued the architects, a joint venture between Bowie Gridley Architects and Perkins & Will, for breach of contract and for indemnification. It is seeking in excess of $2 million, saying in the suit it was forced to spend more money than expected to make up for lost time due to the incomplete designs.

Representatives for Perkins & Will did not respond to questions as of press time. Bowie Gridley Principal Cal Bowie declined to comment. Bowie is married to Alex Orfinger, an executive vice president for American City Business Journals, parent company for the Washington Business Journal.

The lawsuit comes nearly two years after students returned from winter break, not to the 54-year-old brick public school building, but to a newly developed, 356,000-square-foot facility built beside it at 3401 Fourth St. SE. The project was one in a raft of top initiatives outlined in 2011 by former D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, who called for rebuilding the school with a substantial automotive and technical skills program.

The D.C. Department of General Services retained Bowie Gridley and Perkins & Will in 2012 to provide design and construction administration services for the project, according to the lawsuit. The architects were to be paid up to $4.5 million in total basic compensation, the suit said. DGS retained Chiaramonte-Hess to develop the project in 2013, and the developer joint venture broke ground in March 2013.

After Chiaramonte-Hess completed its guaranteed maximum price, or GMT, the architects submitted completed and corrected design documents that called for significant changes to the project’s scope, according to the lawsuit. Chiaramonte-Hess said it was forced to take on additional costs for overtime to complete the project on time.