The Freedom Tower

There is trouble of another variety on the horizon for the Freedom Tower design.
A Massachusetts architect named Thomas Shine has claimed that a design of the tower by architect David Childs resembled an earlier design done by Shine when he was a student at Yale.
Earlier this month, a federal judge said Shine could sue Childs for infringement of a drawing or a series of drawings Shine did of a twisting tower with a façade which Shine showed to Childs in 1999.
In a ruling on August 10, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mukasey said that some “might find that the Freedom Tower’s twisting shape and undulating diamond-shaped façade make it substantially similar to Olympic Tower, and therefore an improper appropriation of copyrighted artistic expression,” the judge is quoted as saying by Architectural Record. “It is possible, even likely, that some ordinary observers might not find the two towers to be substantially similar because as defendants note, there are differences between the Freedom Tower and Olympic Tower.”
Childs is with Skidmore Owings and Merrill. A spokesman for the firm says Shine’s claim is bogus and the firm will defend itself if the case proceeds. She said Shine’s claims were once rejected by the court earlier because three images of Shine’s towers “had been doctored.”
Nevertheless, it looks like Shine will get his day in court.