Did SOM rip off this architect's designs for One World Trade Center?
Park is president of Qube Architecture, a Georgia-based practice. His design, shown below, was made when he was getting a masters from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Park is seeking unspecified damages.
According to the architect, Skidmore has access to the design through an associate partner—one of Park's thesis advisors.1
A Korean-born architect on Wednesday sued a major architecture firm over the design of Manhattan's One World Trade Center, claiming that the building bears a "striking similarity" to a tower he designed in 1999 while in graduate school.
Jeehoon Park accused Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of falsely claiming design credit for the 104-story One World Trade Center, whose 1,776-foot (541 m) height including the spire makes it the Western Hemisphere's tallest building.
Now president of Qube Architecture LLC in Suwanee, Georgia, Park said in the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, that One World Trade Center, which opened in November 2014, copies his 122-story "Cityfront '99," whose cross-sections also feature narrow upright and inverted triangle shapes.
Park, a naturalized U.S. citizen, said he registered Cityfront '99 with the U.S. Copyright Office on May 9.
He is seeking unspecified damages, including for alleged harm to his architectural practice, plus credit for the design he said inspired One World Trade Center.
