District must pay after project goes pffftt

An arbitrator has ruled that the Los Angeles Unified School District must pay $17 million in disputed fees to the architect, McLarand Vasquez Emsiek & Partners, developer Kajima Urban Development and contractor Turner/Kajima International, of the substantially completed Belmont Learning Center near downtown Los Angeles. Construction of the $200 million school was halted early last year after environmental experts said underground methane gas on the site, a former oil field, constitutes a hazard.