Debts Sink Yamasaki Architectural Firm

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http://archrecord.co...ry_id=139798310

The late Minoru Yamasaki founded his firm in the 1950s, and he soon became one of the world's most sought-after modernists. He designed the World Trade Center towers in New York as well as many prominent buildings in metro Detroit, including the McGregor Memorial Conference Center on Wayne State University's campus and the One Woodward Avenue office tower downtown.Yamasaki died in 1986, and for almost a quarter-century, his former partners carried on, designing office buildings in Oakland County and commissions in the Middle East, where Yamasaki himself had had a thriving practice. But the worldwide recession and credit crunch contributed to the firm's collapse.

Modris (Mike) Pudists, a longtime designer who retired from Yamasaki last spring after 46 years, lamented the end of the firm.

"I think that after Yama's death we managed pretty well. We were up to almost 100 people a year and a half ago. But what are you going to do when the jobs basically dried up?"

Jack Finn, director of the wage and hour division of the state Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth, said several Yamasaki employees have filed complaints with the division over unpaid wages. Additionally, a spokesman for the state's Unemployment Insurance Agency said the agency filed suit last fall against the firm for not paying its unemployment insurance taxes.

Meanwhile, other firms that had done business with Yamasaki complained of not getting paid, with the debt often running into tens of thousands of dollars.

[LTAWACS]

This is not good news.

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It's fitting considering the zeitgeist and conversely the troubled footing of high modernism, see Pruit-Igoe and the WTC fates.