Avinash K. Malhotra Associates didn’t build access for people with physical disabilities.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: The architect of a rental apartment building in lower Manhattan has reached a settlement with the city’s government, which filed a federal civil rights suit against him because a building he designed was not accessible to people with physical disabilities.
Avinash K. Malhotra, of Avinash K. Malhotra Architects, and his firm will pay a civil penalty of $35,000, and will pay an additional $45,000 in restitution to individuals affected by the building’s design flaws, for a total of $80,000 in total damages. Malhotra and his firm will also retain an accessibility expert to help prevent them from making the same mistake at other properties they build in the future.
The settlement was approved on Thursday by US Chief District Judge Loretta A. Preska. Previously, the developers of the property had already agreed to pay $35,000 in compensation to affected individuals, and have committed $300,000 to “extensive retrofits at the building” to make it accessible for those suffering from physical disabilities.
The building, known as 2 Gold Street, is a 650-unit rental building that was designed by Malhotra and his firm. In April of last year, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, filed a civil lawsuit against Malhotra and the building’s developers under the federal Fair Housing Act, which mandates that all buildings must be accessible for people with physical disabilities.
The federal Fair Housing Act says that a person can be entitled to compensation if: they feel discouraged from living in a building because of a lack of accessibility; they cannot enjoy full use of a building’s amenities because they can’t access them, they are financially affected by another apartment having such accessibility options; they are prevented from having visitors because the visitors are disabled; and/or they have been injured or discriminated against because of their disability.
“As design professionals, architects have a clear obligation under the Fair Housing Act to ensure that residential buildings are accessible to people with disabilities,” said Bharara, in a statement. “When architects disregard that obligation, our Office will use all the legal tools available to us to hold them responsible for such failures and craft remedies to ensure that their designs will be accessible in the future.”
Malhotra is a registered architect in New York and New Jersey, and is certified by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. He holds a B.S. in Architecture from the University of New Delhi, and an M.S. in Architecture from Columbia University. He has been the Principal at Avinash K. Malhotra Architects since 1978.