Metrospective Goldschmied vs Rogers

Marco eyes up his former office for redevelopment which could leave RRP homeless

Architect Marco Goldschmied has launched a £10 million-plus legal challenge against his former partner Richard Rogers which could see the award-winning Richard Rogers Partnership having to leave its flagship riverside offices, and the River Cafe. In the culmination of a long-running feud, Goldschmied, who left the practice in 2004, has entered a High Court claim against Rogers and the third founding partner of RRP, John Young, now retired. One former staffer described at as “just like a high level divorce. They are now trying to decide how to split the proceeds”. The two-pronged claim centres on Thames Wharf Studios, the mixed-use Hammersmith development that incorporates RRP’s offices — known affectionately as the “bread bin” — and property owned by the RRP pension trust, which includes the River Cafe. Goldschmied, who was the brains behind buying and developing the land in the 1980s, which made the three into millionaires overnight, is believed to want to realise its now far increased value by selling

it on for redevelopment. Its value is believed to be around £30 million and, according

to a source, there is a “huge and significant area of undeveloped land [that] must be worth a bomb”.

In the short term, Goldschmied is thought to be demanding higher rents from RRP, the River Cafe and other occupiers. RRP is understood

to pay £1 million a year in rent for its eight-storey offices. Rogers, Young and Goldschmied are sole beneficiaries of the pension trust, which owns the River Cafe but not RRP’s offices. The High Court claim has reopened the old wound of Goldschmied’s departure just as Rogers was focusing on the future, with his first win of the Stirling Prize and a bold attempt to secure the future of his practice by pro-moting two of the brightest young directors, Graham Stirck and Ivan Harbour (News October 20). The claim was registered with the court at the end of September and has been acknowledged by all parties. A preliminary hearing on an ex parte matter was held in private on Monday. Goldschmied left the practice in 2004 following a dispute over its future leadership. The pair are known to be no longer on speaking terms, although neither has ever gone public with their grievances. Both declined to comment, but a former staffer said: “It’s a terribly bitter end to that bit of the practice.”

(Txt: by Ellen Bennett, txt and pics courtesy of http://www.bdonline.co.uk/ )