Forensic architectural review will determine if classroom design plans are ‘buildable’

Glendale school officials agreed to hire a firm to perform a forensic architectural review of construction projects designed by KPI Architects, an architectural firm Glendale Unified terminated its contract with roughly two years following the death of the company’s owner in 2014.

The architectural firm, run by the late David Kindred, submitted drawings for new classroom buildings at Glendale High School and R.D. White, Muir, Verdugo Woodlands elementary schools, but school officials later questioned the plans’ validity.

“While working on the construction of these new buildings, it became apparent that the drawings produced by KPI had major design flaws and required a constructability review to determine whether or not the plans were buildable as designed,” according to a district report.

The Glendale Unified School Board voted 5-0 during a meeting last week to pay $23,600 for Culver City-based Dean Vlahos FAIA & Associates to conduct the forensic review.

The review will attempt to “solidify whether or not there were actual errors or omissions in those plans,” said Tony Barrios, Glendale Unified’s executive director of facilities, during the meeting.

The report could help the district potentially obtain $1 million through an insurance claim, according to officials.

“We’re hoping to recoup a lot of money through this process,” Barrios said.

Glendale Unified previously filed a lawsuit against Kindred’s estate in Tulsa County District Court in Oklahoma, where Kindred’s estate is being administered.

In a second amended petition filed by the school district this past March, Glendale Unified alleges that an employee of KPI Architects, in March 2014, “notified the district that the plans provided by KPI were in-fact ‘not buildable’ and would require significant review, coordination and revisions in order to begin construction,” according to the petition.

As a result, Glendale Unified officials “conferred with KPI and developed a plan to revise and correct the deficiencies in the plans at KPI’s expense,” according to court records.

But then several months later, in August, Kindred died and his firm “closed business before completing the revisions and corrections to these plans,” according to court records.

In response to the school district’s allegation that KPI’s design plans were flawed, however, attorneys representing Kindred’s estate replied that “the estate is without sufficient information to admit or deny the allegations ... and demands strict proof thereof,” according to their response filed in court in late March.

Glendale Unified also alleges KPI Architects had accepted payment from Glendale Unified for services it had not performed, according to the petition, and as a result of Kindred’s and his firm’s “acts and omissions, the district has incurred or will incur additional costs for completion of the KPI agreements in close proximity of $1 million,” according to the school district’s petition.

“The decedent and KPI at all times acted in good faith,” according to the response filed by attorneys representing Kindred’s estate.