Below is an email message we received from Alexander Lorenz, President and CEO of BYZANTIVM regarding the lawsuit from Hawaii Lighting Representatives (HLR):
BYZANTIVM Response:
“We would like to address some assertions and omissions in your article. BYZANTIVM has not been served with a complaint, so we cannot confirm or deny that such a complaint has ben filed. With that said, the assertions are false and we are pleased with the opportunity to address them.
BYZANTIVM has operated for over 20 years, providing technically complex bespoke contract decorative lighting to hospitality and multifamily projects on three continents, and have never once been subject of a lawsuit, nor the threat of a lawsuit, so needless to say we are quite shocked and disappointed at this turn of events. However, the project in question contains far more nuances than are covered in the article, which we are happy to address.
With respect to the LT-08 fixtures, never in our 20+ years of making literally thousands of these suspended glass artifacts, has even one artifact ever failed and fell. With respect to the LT-08 fixture referenced in the article, the glass artifacts they speak of were made exactly to spec, with shop drawings reviewed and approved by client’s designer, with full working and illuminated samples produced and shipped for review. Assembly was the responsibility of the client. However, they were assembled incorrectly by the client’s assembly team, by overtightening the set screws, causing the screws to burrow into the glass, causing a cleavage and failing, a condition that we were able to reproduce at the factory, after being alerted of the failures.
What was unique about this project is that the installers repeatedly abandoned the important step of having a pre-game call with the manufacturer for clarifications, methods, minefields, assembly video calls, etc., before setting their team on the task of assembling. This was a common theme throughout this project.
Never in our multi-decade history have we been accused of, or held responsible for perceived insufficient assembly instructions. Judicious assembly teams always contact us before assembly. We stand behind our flawless reputation, and stand behind the design – to wit, a commodity design that is used in projects worldwide – both by BYZANTIVM and hundreds of other manufacturers. With that said, in the interest of maintaining project momentum, and to mitigate repeated assembly challenges, BYZANTIVM has offered to provide alternative solutions.
With respect to the LT-09/10/12 ballroom chandeliers, two issues are in play: The panel glass, and the structure. The panel glass was produced and crated by a tenured, 30-year glass producer who later admitted to using sub-standard crating material, resulting in total damage in transit, yet refused to cover the cost to remanufacture and ship. BYZANTIVM absorbed the cost, in excess of $100,000, and produced and shipped a new run of the panel glass, no questions asked. Replacement glass was received and confirmed in-tact.
During the shop-drawing phase, the client’s designer mandated last-minute design changes that radically altered the structural performance of the chandelier leading to predictable deflection (sagging) that we had warned repeatedly about, and our design suggestions to mitigate the predictable deflection and recommendations for the employ of acrylic panels instead of glass, were denied. Bespoke decorative lighting is, necessarily an iterative process. Because of the client’s and distributor’s hair-on-fire, compressed timeline, this iterative process was forced to run in parallel with the production process, eliminating any opportunity for our suggested remedies to be considered and adopted.
As a result of this deflection condition, BYZANTIVM designed panel mount adapters to accommodate for the predictable hole misalignment from the client’s design change. However, installers expressly ignored our clear and explicit instructions on how to mount and install the clips and panels – both sequence and screw torque. This resulted in panel cracking – yet another predictable event. Being safety-laminated glass, failure and falling after cracking was never a concern. At this point, in the interests of maintaining project momentum, and to mitigate similar assembly challenges, we are in negotiations to provide alternative solutions.
Repeatedly, the assembly team neglected to contact us before assembly. Repeatedly, the distributor canceled the factory visits we arranged. Repeatedly, our warnings about sagging stemming from unsupported spans were ignored. In the situations that arose, where issues were our responsibility, we rose to cover those costs, and provide remedies, no questions asked. Beyond this, however, BYZANTIVM engaged in a long list of costly, good faith measures – well outside our scope, to bring this project to fruition, including covering the costs of over $38,000 to bring a team to assemble the chandelier frames – after the assembly team abandoned the task upon uncovering a minor component positioning issue that was resolved by a fifteen-minute visit by a welder.
We are extremely proud that the vast majority of our custom lighting fixtures are already installed and operating beautifully at the resort. However, when it comes to large, complex, structurally intricate designs, there is always more to the story behind the headlines. This is a valuable cautionary tale for manufacturers and project owners alike. Continuous, direct communication between manufacturer, installer, and project owner is critical to ensure smooth installation, and to understand the consequences of client-driven, major structural design changes. An unfortunate virtue of this industry is that it is only the manufacturer who is in the position to provide solutions – not the distributor, not the installer – indeed, it’s the shortest distance between point A and point B. So naturally the finger points to the manufacturer, with the expectation that they cover the cost and shipping of the remedies, regardless of whether or not the facts are being considered.
Until today, we were repeatedly blocked from having direct contact with the ownership team of this project, which led to this impasse. We never walked away, we never stopped offering remedies, and we never had any assurance that our concerns and warnings were being heard. We are confident that our previously proposed remedies will be accepted, and enable swift completion of this project that everyone will be proud of.”
