The planned presidential center for former President Barack Obama is facing a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination by one of the firms managing its construction.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, the lawsuit was filed in January in a federal court by the construction firm II in One, which accused New York-based company Thornton Tomasetti of “excessively rigorous and unnecessary” standards for inspection, as well as racial discrimination that led to “extreme financial loss and reputational hardship.”
In the lawsuit, II in One owner Robert McGee is asking to receive $41 million in additional costs that his firm incurred due to the discrimination, saying that these practices “directly undermined the Obama Foundation’s DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) goals and commitments and mission to bring transformative change to the construction industry and local community.”
McGee added that his company is currently “on the brink of forced closure because of racial discrimination by the structural engineer.”
Thornton Tomasetti has denied the accusations, saying in a memo to the Obama Foundation back in 2024 that all of the various delays and increased costs “were all unequivocally driven by the underperformance and inexperience … [of] what everyone knows was a questionably qualified subcontractor team.”
“We cannot stand by while contractors attempt to blame their own shortcomings on the design team,” Thornton Tomasetti added.
Addressing the allegations, Obama Foundation spokeswoman Emily Bittner said in a statement that the foundation has “no reason to believe that Thornton Tomasetti acted with racist intent.”
The Obama Presidential Center has faced numerous delays and other obstacles since it was first announced. Construction finally broke ground in 2021, four years after Obama left office, after being hindered by environmental impact reviews. The complex, planned to cover 20 acres in Jackson Park, Chicago, has been criticized by local residents due to its sheer size and the distraction it may present. In 2018, an open letter signed by over 150 faculty members at the University of Chicago denounced the project as a “socially regressive…intrusion” that “will not provide the promised development or economic benefit.”
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