Claiming racial discrimination, Tony Udeagbala of Machisa Design Services filed a $41M suit claiming he was fired from a $26M Ohio school renovation project because he was black and from Nigeria. The project has been cancelled.

The suit claims Columbus’ facilities chief, Carole Olshavsky, “sabotaged Machisa at every opportunity” and was “meddlesome” and that the board changed the scope of work on the school-building project “at a whim.”

Gee, a meddlesome owner that changes design on a whim…I thought that was their job.

While I certainly don’t know the facts on this case, a perusal of the Machisa Design Services website surely doesn’t show an impressive firm. The fact that they were already paid $680,000 before the contract was terminated and were not the lead architect tells me the District spent a fortune on design fees.

What’s the takeaway? Be careful with professional design service procurement. Between copyright violations and wrongful terminations, it’s tricky to change architects in midstream.