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Packard Museum Association sues architectural firm
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The Packard Museum Association has filed a lawsuit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court against the local architectural firm that designed the recent expansion at the National Packard Museum, 1899 Mahoning Avenue.
The association filed suit against Baker, Bednar, Snyder and Associates Inc. of Niles-Cortland Road Southeast, Warren, seeking $122,283.
The price tag for the 80-foot-by-120-foot expansion was $1 million, most of it coming from a Federal Highway Transportation grant, according to Vindicator files.
The additional space was needed to display 35 Packard vehicles, officials said in 2008, just before construction began on the expansion.
Randall Baker, one of the principals of the architectural firm, said he would have no comment on the lawsuit “since I have not seen it.”
He added, “We are a professional firm that has been in existence for 35 years, and this has never happened in 35 years, and so we really cannot respond.”
The suit says the firm, then known as Baker, Bednar and Associates, entered into an agreement with the city of Warren, whereby the city would enter into the necessary contracts for the expansion.
The architectural firm and city entered into an agreement for services for the expansion, and the architectural firm communicated directly with the museum association to prepare plans and drawings and estimate costs for the expansion, the lawsuit says.
On June 17, 2008, museum association officials met with the architectural firm to review the plans and drawings prior to starting the bidding process, the suit says.
At the meeting, the museum association discovered that “several proposed changes that had previously been communicated to the [architectural firm] had not been incorporated into the plans and drawings,” the suit said.
The architectural firm told the museum association that the revisions and corrections would be made prior to bidding the project, the suit said.
The museum association authorized the architects to proceed with the bidding, the suit said.
“Despite the aforesaid representations and promises made to the [museum association], the [architectural firm] submitted the plans and drawings for bid without making any of the requested changes and corrections as promised,” the suit said.
As a result, the museum association incurred $122,383 in additional costs over and above anticipated funding contributions, the suit said.
The suit was filed by Atty. David S. Barbee of Roth, Blair, Roberts, Strasfield & Lodge of Youngstown.