Hasta La Ideas

After a remarkably rocky year that involved a number of lawsuits, very vocal exits by staff and principals, unpaid wages, a bail out, and most recently, the exit of Will Alsop, one of their most high-profile architects, RMJM received some positive news this week: they’re going to keep working on the Gazprom Tower, a massive, multi-billion dollar structure based in St. Petersburg, Russia, which will be Europe’s tallest skyscraper when completed. As the Herald Scotland writes, the project originally stipulated that RMJM, one of the largest architecture firms in the world, would only be involved in the initial planning phases, “devising the original masterplan and evolving the building concept.” Things were apparently pushed further into question after UNESCO had tried to fight off the original location for the tower and, as Building Design writes, “Gazprom confirmed it was talking to several different firms” at that time. To make matters worse, there was also some talk back in late June when the German firm Muller BBM filed a suit against the company, claiming it was owed $140,000 in unpaid fees after having contributed work on the tower. However, all that now seems at though it’s water under the bridge, as RMJM has announced that the Gazprom developers have decided to keep them on throughout the entirety of the four-year building process, with the firm serving as its lead in project management.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.