The Greensboro City Council didn’t discuss or explain the new contract for architectural services for the Tanger Center for the Performing Arts at the meeting Tuesday, Aug. 20, before passing the motion on a 7-1 vote with Councilmember Sharon Hightower voting no.

Issuing a new contract for $140,000 to hire an architect for a building that is about six months away from completion, is odd, but not deemed worthy of a comment by a single member of the City Council.

The reason for the new contract is that Rosser International, a large architectural firm formerly headquartered in Atlanta, went out of business on June 25. The contract for architectural services for the Tanger was with Rosser, so in effect, after June 25, the Tanger had no lead architect.

What the City Council did on Tuesday was hire the lead architect for the Tanger, Amanda Hodgins, who is now a senior associate with TVS North Carolina P.C. So the Tanger still has the same lead architect but the contract is with a different firm.

The Rosser website currently announces that the company moved its headquarters on May 15, but it doesn’t mention that the company closed its doors on June 25. The map of Rosser projects shows Rosser project locations all over the country, in all but five or six states including projects in Alaska and Hawaii.

According to the website Rosser, traces its history back to 1947 and had 80 employees with branch offices in Savannah, Georgia, Lexington, Kentucky, and the Middle East before closing its doors and laying off all the employees in June.

According to Venues Now, Rosser has done a lot of work for Greensboro over the years designing all the renovations to the Greensboro Coliseum since 1993, including creating the original design for the Aquatic Center.

Although Rosser closed its doors in June, the contract with TVS North Carolina was a last minute addition to the agenda, as if it were something the city only discovered the day of the meeting.

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