One World Trade Center design was stolen, architect claims
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}One World Trade Center in 2014. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
A Georgia-based architect says the prominent architectural firm behind One World Trade Center ripped off a design he created as a graduate student in 1999.
Jeehoon Park sued architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in Manhattan federal court Wednesday for unspecified damages, saying the firm has unfairly taken credit for the lower Manhattan tower, the tallest in the Western Hemisphere, despite its “striking similarity” to a multi-sided glass structure he created while studying at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.
Park, who is now president at Qube Architecture LLC in Suwanee, Ga., said Skidmore, Owings & Merrill had access to his graduate thesis design through multiple channels, including his former graduate school adviser, who now works with SOM.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jeehoon Park's design.
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SOM did not immediately return a request for comment.