Zaera-Polo sues Princeton for 'damaging his reputation'

Alejandro Zaera-Polo is suing the president, dean and trustees of Princeton University for causing “substantial damage” to his business and reputation.

The architect has filed papers in a New Jersey court claiming their actions, and failure to act, have deprived him of “lucrative and prestigious professional and academic opportunities”.

He also alleges that the president’s “inexplicably urgent” demand for his immediate resignation as dean of the school of architecture in 2014 resulted in the circulation of “false rumours of sexual or financial misconduct”.

Zaera-Polo is asking the court for unspecified “punitive damages” in the case which is levelled against Christopher Eisgruber, president of Princeton, Deborah Prentice, dean of the faculty, the trustees and 20 “John and Jane Does” – unnamed students, senior faculty staff or “other individuals who participated in, or were complicit with, the conduct complained of herein”.

The case revolves around the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, directed by Rem Koolhaas, after which Zaera-Polo was accused of failing to credit work by Princeton in his exhibition on facades and its catalogue.

Eisgruber asked him to resign and Prentice wrote to Koolhaas to report Princeton’s complaint. Zaera-Polo disputes their complaint, saying the work was to be credited in footnotes in an academic version of the catalogue.

The claim, lodged at Mercer County Court in Trenton, NJ, this week and containing four counts, coincides with the opening of this year’s architecture biennale. It describes itself as “an action for breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, tortious interference with prospective economic advantage, trade libel, and defamation”.

The papers reprint the text of an anonymous post on the Archinect forum which Zaera-Polo claims could only have been written by someone associated with Princeton – hence the “John Does” in his claim.

The text, which BD can reprint because the papers are covered by legal privilege, says: “Word at Princeton is that Alejandro Zaera-Polo, dean of the School of Architecture, has been formally accused of plagiarism to the university by a group of students… Supposedly large portions of his text were plagiarized verbatim; this offense normally gets serious academic review and possibly could have him removed as dean. We’ll see soon enough. What’s even more shocking is that the source that he is accused of plagiarizing is Wikipedia (!). He is obviously not an academic, but, I mean, come on. Wikipedia?”

Zaera-Polo says much of this is “patently false”. He accuses the writer of misusing private information and spreading “false and malicious rumours and confidential information” at the university, among the wider profession and to the press.

He goes on to complain that the defendants failed to investigate breaches of the university’s own procedures – “in stark contrast to their aggressive treatment of plaintiff”.

The papers state: “Moreover Eisgruber and Prentice acted prematurely, negligently and/or recklessly in a manner that seemingly confirmed the widespread, false, and damaging public rumours concerning [the] plaintiff. Defendants’ actions and failures to act have resulted in significant damage to plaintiff’s business and to his reputation, including the loss of lucrative and prestigious professional and academic opportunities.

“Adding insult to injury, defendants have fostered a hostile environment toward plaintiff at Princeton. For example, Princeton relocated plaintiff to a shared office in a basement, contrary to Princeton’s policy granting full, senior professors individual offices, generally on the ground floor. Princeton hired an alternate lecturer on building facades (plaintiff’s expertise) and scheduled that course to conflict exactly with plaintiff’s course on the same subject. Princeton even failed to list plaintiff’s course in its course catalogue during spring 2015.”

Princeton said in a statement: “The university is aware that Professor Zaera-Polo has filed an action against it and others relating to the investigation and disposition of research misconduct claims asserted against him and to his resignation as Dean of the School of Architecture. As noted in the rules and procedures of the faculty, the ‘university is committed to high scholarly standards in the substance of research and to high ethical standards in the conduct of research’ and to the fair and unbiased adjudication of all misconduct complaints.  

“The university is confident that the officials and faculty members who investigated and adjudicated the claims against Professor Zaera-Polo did so fairly and in accordance with university policies and procedures. The university will defend its position in court, and looks forward to the successful resolution of these claims.”

BD has contacted Alejandro Zaera-Polo for a comment.