Nader Tehrani, the architect contracted by Cornell University to design suicide barriers on the school’s bridges, is in a ruthless dispute with business partner Monica Ponce de Leon over ownership of architecture firm Office dA, the Boston Globe reported today.
Cornell University hired Tehrani in late August in a $600,000 contract with Office dA to design bridge barriers as a measure to prevent student suicide on campus.
Now the company Tehrani founded in 1986 is suffering from chaotic inner-turmoil that may lead to the dissolution of the firm. Only three days after Tehrani submitted the project’s pre-design proposal to the University, Ponce de Leon, the company’s majority shareholder, fired Tehrani from his position as treasurer in a move to establish herself as the firm’s owner.
“We need to regroup and figure out what our next move is,” Cornell’s University Architect Gilbert Delgado told The Cornell Review this afternoon. “We’re trying to work through this and we’re considering our options. This is not good news for us, but we are at a pivotal point. We don’t have all the facts yet, we’re trying to work through them right now.”
Oliver Renick blogs at the Cornell Insider and an editor of the Cornell Review. He is a member of the Student Free Press Association.
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