After eight months of unsuccessful negotiations, the U.S.
Justice Department filed suit against MN-based architectural firm
Ellerbe Beckett Co., charging that several of its arenas across
the country violate the Americans With Disabilities Act because
they do not offer adequate seating for the disabled. The suit,
filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, asks the court to
bar the firm from designing any new stadiums and to assess a
civil penalty not in excess of $50,000, according to Lorraine
Woellert of the WASHINGTON TIMES. The lawsuit cites Boston's
FleetCenter, the CoreStates Center in Philadelphia, the Rose
Garden in Portland, Gund Arena in Cleveland, Marine Midland Arena
in Buffalo and the yet-to-be-completed MCI Center in D.C., noting
that "patrons confined to wheelchairs have no place to sit that
guarantees a line of sight to the playing surface" (WASHINGTON
TIMES, 10/11).
REAX: John Wodatch, Chief of the Disability-Rights in the
Justice Department's Civil Rights Division: "We're simply trying
to get them to change the way they've designed stadiums. They
have told us they're beginning to design stadiums differently,
but we don't have any evidence of that." Ellerbe Beckett
spokesperson Lisa Haller called the lawsuit "a great surprise"
(WASHINGTON TIMES, 10/11). Haller added the firm complies with
ADA regulations, but said "there's a problem with the law"
because there is "room for interpretation and some confusion over
exactly what's required." Lawsuits have previously been filed by
private groups against five of the six arenas named in
yesterday's action (David Halbfinger, BOSTON GLOBE, 10/11).
