Architect sues SOM for allegedly ripping off 1 WTC design

Jeehoon Park claims he came up with tower in 1999

One World Trade Center (credit: Joe Mabel via Wikimedia Commons)
One World Trade Center (credit: Joe Mabel via Wikimedia Commons)

A Georgia architect is suing the designers of One World Trade Center for allegedly stealing his design work.

In a complaint filed in New York State Supreme Court on Wednesday, Jeehoon Park claims architecture firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill shouldn’t take credit for designing One World Trade Center because it ripped of a design he came up with as a graduate student. He seeks unspecified damages, the New York Post reported.

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Park, who runs Qube Architecture, argues SOM’s design has a “striking similarity” with his own, dubbed Cityfront ‘99. According to the complaint, SOM may have seen the design when it appeared in the 2006 film The Lake House, which was filmed “in the main lobby of the building where SOM’s Chicago office was located.

One World Trade Center co-developer, the Durst Organization recently received a different design-related lawsuit, when tenant Conde Nast sued over dirty windows. [NYP]Konrad Putzier