The Center for Advanced Medicine & Surgery at White Plains Hospital was touted as a state-of-the-art outpatient facility when it opened last year, but now the hospital and Perkins Eastman Architects are fighting over how well the structure was built.
Perkins Eastman sued the hospital for nearly $1.9 million in alleged unpaid fees, Oct. 19 in Manhattan Supreme Court, claiming that the hospital was responsible for design and construction issues.
Two days later, White Plains Hospital filed a summons and notice in Westchester Supreme Court that accused Perkins Eastman of malpractice and demanded $10 million.
Neither lawsuit identifies any specific defects in the medical building but both imply that something bad happened on the $230 million project.
The 252,000-square-foot center — nine stories according to the hospital, ten stories according to Perkins Eastman — is at Maple and Longview avenues. Pedestrian bridges connect the structure to the hospital’s main campus and to a parking garage.
The center features suites for surgery and various medical specialty procedures, imaging facilities and a wound care center.
The hospital hired Perkins Eastman in 2017 to design the medical building. Ground was broken in 2019 and the center opened in July 2021.
The job was set up as a fast-track project, where construction begins before all of the designs are completed. The method carries the risk of increased costs, according to Perkins Eastman, as the architect has to redesign portions of the project before it has all construction documents.
Perkins Eastman says White Plains Hospital and the hospital’s construction manager were responsible for reviewing and approving architectural documents at each phase of the job.
Any decision to proceed with work without all of the documents, Perkins Eastman claims, was made and approved by the hospital.
The hospital also directed Perkins Eastman to perform additional services, according to the complaint, that increased the price of the contract to about $17.6 million. The hospital has paid $15.7 million, leaving a balance of nearly $1.9 million.
White Plains Hospital says it hired Perkins Eastman because of the Manhattan architects “claimed experience as a leading architectural firm with specialized expertise in the design of healthcare and medical facilities.”
The hospital says it relied on Perkins’ expertise, but the firm “failed to meet the standard of care in connection with its work.”
The three-page summons and notice does not cite any particular failures, but it accuses Perkins of professional malpractice, negligence and fraud.
Perkins Eastman is represented by Manhattan attorneys Michael T. Rogers and Douglas J. Lutz. White Plains Hospital, a member of Montefiore Health System, is represented by Nassau County attorneys Kevin Donoghue and Harpreet Kaur.
