Contractor Sues Glenstone Museum Foundation for $24 Million

A month before the much-anticipated unveiling of the revamped Glenstone Museum in Potomac, Maryland, a contracting firm that oversaw the ambitious expansion there has sued the foundation that runs the institution, seeking at least $24 million in damages.

The Glenstone Museum was created by Mitchell and Emily Wei Rales to house their private collection of postwar art, considered one of the world’s best.

The company, Hitt Contracting of Falls Church, Virginia, filed the suit at the end of August in U.S. District Court in Maryland, accusing the foundation of breach of contract and mismanagement, adding that a “torrent of changes” the foundation had demanded repeatedly disrupted and delayed work.

Hitt listed millions of dollars in unpaid fees it says Glenstone owes and stated that those outstanding debts had left the company “exposed” to $14 million in claims by subcontractors.

“As a result of defendant’s mismanagement of the project and persistent refusal to pay for the work they performed, Hitt and its subcontractors were effectively forced to self-fund the project for the benefit of defendant for months at a time,” the complaint said.

Ashley Campbell, a spokeswoman for Hitt, said by telephone Thursday that the company had fulfilled its contractual obligations, adding: “This is about being paid for work that’s already been put in place.”

The foundation responded with a written statement, saying “We will not comment on pending litigation, except to say that we look forward to responding to these claims vigorously in court, where we are confident they will be found to be without merit.”

The assertions by Hitt Contracting, which were first reported Thursday by the Washington Business Journal, may not overshadow the opening of the renovated museum, which is set for Oct. 4. But they could add an unanticipated and dissonant note to what otherwise would be regarded as the capstone of an extensive re-imagining.

For years, Glenstone was a nearly hidden gem, created by Rales, a reclusive industrialist, and his wife, and located on the grounds of a former hunt club just a few miles outside Washington. Its website says it functions “not only as a place, but a state of mind created by the energy of architecture, the power of art, and the restorative qualities of nature.”

Hours were part time and visits were by appointment only. Those who made the trip could wander through the grounds and gaze at sculptures by artists like Ellsworth Kelly, Richard Serra and Jeff Koons. Other works were housed inside a Modernist limestone building.

A few years ago the Rales announced a far-reaching expansion. That eventually came to include the new construction of a museum building, cafe, corral, arrival gallery and gatehouse, and the completion of substantial landscaping and site improvement work, according to the complaint.

Hitt took over as construction manager in March 2014, the company said, but quickly encountered what the complaint described as “challenges caused by the defendant’s disorganized contract administration.”

Glenstone made more than 2,400 changes throughout the course of the project, Hitt said, but routinely refused to acknowledge the cost and schedule impacts of changes and attendant disruptions and delays. The result, according to the lawsuit, included significant extra costs for Hitt and its subcontractors.

Hitt said that the museum’s architects improperly declined to issue certificates of substantial completion. (Those architects, in New York and California, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.) According to Hitt, the defendant began to move in beginning in June 2017 and has since fully occupied the space and “assumed operational control.”

On Tuesday, Glenstone’s website announced the opening of reservations to visit the museum, which was described as including additional exhibition space, two cafes, a bookstore and a total of 230 acres of landscaped meadows, woods and streams.

The centerpiece of Glenstone is a new 204,000-square-foot cast-concrete temple for art, called the Pavilions, designed by Thomas Phifer of Thomas Phifer and Partners. The building consists of a series of connected gallery rooms — intended for single-artist installations — set in the landscape to resemble a traditional hill town.

“After years of planning and building, we’re excited to reach this moment when we’re ready to share so much more of the Glenstone collection with the public,” Rales said in a news release on the site Tuesday. “We look forward to welcoming visitors soon to our fully realized vision of art, architecture, and landscape combined in a single experience.”