We all know the mess Trump created with his ‘improvement’ project at the Lincoln Reflecting Pool. It’s STILL a mess. That’s what happens when you hire a small firm that doesn’t have the needed experience and people to do such a massive project. With the Kennedy Center slated to undergo a $257 Million Renovation Trump’s hush hush contract went to a small midwestern firm that specializes in schools and churches. Although decades old nothing in their background comes close to working on a project of this size.
That’s why I say the iconic Kennedy Center could be in for a fate worse than we’ve been witnessing at the also iconic Lincoln Reflecting Pool which in cost at least would be more in line with the size (dollar amount) of contract ATSR, the design firm in question has handled. The Kennedy Center isn’t just another government building. It’s a world renowned performing arts facility that has multiple different spaces for hosting plays, concerts, opera and musical theater. It also has galleries for visual art. It’s a large and complex place.
The Kennedy Center is the kind of place that requires a contractor with the experience, specialize knowledge and resources to undertake one of the most ambitious projects such a venue has ever attempted. It needs a design firm with a large cadre of people with experience in this type of work. Not a a little ‘Who is that?’ firm that has little experience in this area. By area I mean two things – DC with it’s complex set of building codes AND also significant experience with venues geared towards performing arts. Such places have some rather unique needs. (For the record back in high school and college I wasn’t just a ‘jock’ – I was also active in performing arts) As we learn from The Washington Post, there are an awful lot of questions about just how Trump’s pick to renovate the Kennedy Center was made, and whether the firm he chose is up to the task.
It’s an admittedly lengthy article but I urge you to take the five to ten minutes needed to use the link provided today since it will go behind the Post’s paywall by the weekend. The WP starts out describing the mystery among those in DC who would have been expected to bid on the massive project. No one seemed to know anything, and for those who don’t know in a place like DC that’s unusual. The scope of the work and the people needed at a given firm just to put together a formal bid for the contract would have led to various firms or some of their people at least sharing (even with each other) they were going after the job.
However according to Rebecca Miller, head of the DC Preservation League architects were calling each other, trying to find out who’d gotten the contract. Or even just invited to bid. This is after all the kind of work where a specific ‘Request for Bids Proposal’ that includes specific elements would be sent out to outfits known to be capable of such work. Also, a more general notice would go out. However not only did no one in DC know who’d been asked to provide a bid for the renovation, much less who’d actually won the the contract. Miller kept digging and what she learned was both startling and troubling:
Miller eventually got an answer from the Kennedy Center’s executive director, Matt Floca. Instead of the several firms with experience in theaters, historic buildings or the Kennedy Center itself, the center turned to an unlikely architecture company, according to project plans obtained by The Washington Post and other news outlets: a small, little-known Minnesota firm whose specialty is designing regional elementary schools, high schools and churches.
The company, ATSR, has been named the architect of record for the $257 million overhaul of the Kennedy Center, putting it in charge of coordinating architectural work on one of Washington’s most prominent landmarks. But the firm — which employs just 50 people, including eight architects, according to an industry database — generally does work that is a fraction of the scale and expense of the job. One if its most ambitious projects, according to its online portfolio, was a high school renovation completed in 2016 that cost about $40 million.
Needless to say now that word is out on who Trump picked to renovate the Kennedy Center ‘Trump Style’ (please, PLEASE let that not happen!!!) there are questions. Why was this particular firm chosen. Had anyone else bid on the job. Was anyone else even asked to do so? There are after all rules, from the local govt. level all the way up to the federal one about how contracts are supposed to be entered into. As I said, for a sizeable or specialized job a list of specific things to be done must be drawn up along with objective criteria for how those items will be evaluated. Then, regulations and often actual laws require that except in extraordinary circumstances a request for bids goes out that includes a cutoff date for accepting proposals/bids.
Of course, for Trump the normal way of doing things is something he can’t be bothered with. The way he sees it HE is ‘The Donald’ and he can do whatever the hell he wants. That of course includes giving out no-bid contracts and it’s fair to suggest the most important part of said contracts isn’t whether a contractor can properly do the job to required specifications, but what his cut of the action will be. That’s how you get a crony getting handed a job like the Reflecting Pool – and botching it. By comparison the Kennedy Center is a far more complex task, and and instead of the $25-30 million the Reflecting Pool will ultimately cost (well more than double and close to triple the initial projected cost) the Kennedy Center will be ten times that amount! Tell me that like me you aren’t wondering how much will get kicked back to Trump!
This whole thing stinks worse than the sewer under Trump’s fake gold toilet. To paraphrase the fictional Col. Kilgore I DON’T love the smell of Trump grift in the morning – it smells like… defeat. However it seems to me Trump’s obsession with the Kennedy Center has long been about more than being as jealous of JFK and Jackie as he (and sometimes Melania) is about Barack (and Michelle) Obama. He saw a chance to use a large and complex renovation project that he know will involve numerous sub-contractors to skim some serious grift.
The best way to do that is by putting a small unheard of even back in Minnesota firm in overall charge in name at least – clearly Trump will be in charge. A firm that is either owned by a crony or is willing (for their own cut of the action) to siphon off serious money. The linked article delves into a lot of stuff and I have a (admittedly deserved) reputation for going into too much detail and making reader’s eyes glaze over. That’s why I say read the linked WaPo article which lays out a lot of information while posing some serious questions. The kind of questions in fact that a new Congress controlled by Democrats will have to look at. It is Congress after all that appropriated that $257 million which everyone knows will go higher – just like the Reflecting Pool ‘renovation’ (more like ruination) or for that matter Trump’s freaking ballroom which has more than doubled in cost.
One last point I want to make while again urging you to read and digest what the WaPo writes about this. Their is a rush to get started on the work. A ‘BIGLY’ rush. It’s almost like Trump wants to be able to claim (or have Blanche do so) in court that once the project is started it can’t be stopped. That penalties would have to be paid and the whole cost would be way greater than if we minions and those pesky Democrats on Capitol Hill cancelled his makeover of the Kennedy Center. And started over with a transparent process that followed all the normal and more importantly required steps.
In the end I say the more Trump tries to hide details of his planned ‘renovation’ the more he’s trying to hide. Congress and the public should demand this fiasco stops RIGHT NOW before the Kennedy Center becomes it’s own version of the Reflecting Pool disaster.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
