Philharmonie de Paris
(c) Remy Franck
Last week, Jean Nouvel filed a lawsuit with the French financial prosecutor’s office to defend itself versus the Philharmonie which is claiming € 170 million because of budget overruns during the building of the hall.
The construction of the Paris Philharmonie had taken eight years and cost 386 million euros. Originally, 173 euros had been forseen. The construction also took two years longer than planned.
The concert hall blames Nouvel for the cost explosion and the delay and accuses the architect of having underestimated the construction costs and « constantly » changed the plans during construction.
More than two years after the opening, the Philharmonie had charged the architect € 170.6 million. The sum also includes a contractual penalty of € 110 million for the delayed opening. Nouvel’s architecture firm considers the requested sum to be completely excessive – especially since, according to court documents, he only received a fee of twelve million euros.
Nouvel’s lawyers, William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth, said the claim against their client was all the more unusual for the fact that the concert hall was targeting only the architect and no other business involved in the project.
