I don't post much here, but I thought I might add some info on this topic. I am an engineer and have worked with Stuart Olson in the past. They are very good at covering themselves during jobs, and I have no doubt that they followed the design that the architect and engineers had on the plans. In my past experience all they ever did was push paper around, and did very little actual work.
This is the standard practice if there are issues like this on a construction project. If an agreement can't be worked out behind doors to fix the issues, then you sue everyone involved, whether or not that party was at fault. The insurance company wants to get as many other insurance companies to the table to ensure there is enough money available.
I see the issues being the fault of the architect and engineer not correctly identifying the needs of the facility in the design or not being provided the correct information from the end user to provide a correct design. If the contractor onsite sees an issue, the send a written question to the engineer and architect for direction. The contractor can't do what they think is best, as they are tied to the plans and instructions from the designer, or then the contractor would take the liability. On small jobs the contractor doing the work would simply discuss with the engineer and it would be worked out.
I think a large part of this comes down to the architect not knowing enough about design on buildings like this, and the rush in the schedule which took preliminary plans done for another site, and forced the designers to create construction plans and provide enough time to review and find issues like this. People make mistakes and there are many layers in which they can be found. I think the rush to get the job done pushed many of those layer away. If you're a contractor on the job and the building is 6 months behind schedule, would you be asking questions about insulation of a room, or just put your head down and build as fast as you can.
How many people here would think that the concourse would need to be designed to support a forklift carrying supplies. What we first think about is the hundreds of people walking around. There are many things like this that can happen on a project like this. Someone makes an assumption, or asked the wrong person to make this assumption and we get to where we are.
In the end this will all get worked out. Many people are to blame, and many insurance companies will be paying for this.
