Two Massachusetts families have filed separate civil lawsuits against a midcoast architect, claiming that he misled them regarding his experience and qualifications, made designs that were over their budgets and significantly delayed progress on their building projects.
Christopher Lucas and Christie Larochelle of Cohasset, Massachusetts, filed a lawsuit at the end of January against John Priestley III, who has an architecture firm based in Rockport, over alleged delays in delivering plans to build a home on the couple’s 34-acre mountainside property in Hope. It seeks $95,996 in restitution
Another couple, James and Erin Barker of Georgetown, Massachusetts, filed a similar suit against Priestley and his firm in 2023, over its work on a redesign of their home overlooking the Kennebec River in Phippsburg.
Both lawsuits claim Priestley embellished his qualifications by suggesting on his LinkedIn profile that he studied architecture at Cornell University, an Ivy League school, and by citing credentials that gave the impression he was licensed to practice architecture in Massachusetts. That included an email signature and architectural plans that have noted a Boston office of his firm, and biographical information suggesting he did work on Faneuil Hall in Boston.
The lawsuits claimed that Priestley did not receive his license through “education and testing,” but through an alternate mechanism in which another architect — in this case, Priestley’s own father — attested to his skill and experience. In one of the suits, the plaintiffs suggested that Priestley may also have borrowed the biographical detail about working on projects in Massachusetts from his father, the late John Priestley Jr.
Both sets of plaintiffs claimed they factored their impressions of Priestley’s credentials into their views that his firm was duly qualified, and that without this information, they would not have hired him to design their projects.
Priestley has an active architecture license in Maine with no disciplinary actions on record. There is a John Priestley listed in Massachusetts records as having an expired architecture license, but the page does not specify if it was the father or son.
Joe Baiungo, a Belfast attorney representing Priestley, denied the allegations against him.
He said the architect did not inflate his qualifications or have any intention to do so. Priestley did attend Cornell University, but did not graduate from it, according to Baiungo. He also said Priestley never claimed to practice architecture in Massachusetts, and there is one person at his firm qualified to practice in Massachusetts.
“A lot of Mr. Lucas’ allegations, I have difficulty sometimes even understanding what he’s saying,” Baiungo said.
Baiungo did not know if Priestley received his license to practice with help from his father, but emphasized that Priestley does have an active and valid license to practice in Maine.
According to the court documents for the Maine case, Lucas and Larochelle requested a design for a roughly 3,500-square-foot home with a maximum budget of $1.5 million. Shortly before construction was set to begin in 2022, Priestley allegedly provided Lucas and Larochelle with a design that was 4,400 square feet in size and would cost at least $1.84 million.
Lucas and Larochelle claimed in the lawsuit that they had to take time to consider the “surprising” specifications, therefore delaying construction on their home. They also made other claims, including that they were unsuccessful in getting Priestley to conform with their initial request and that the project was delayed even further when builders struggled to site it.
The couple claimed in the court documents that because of the delays and issues, they terminated their contract. In a brief interview, Priestley said that the lawsuit boiled down to a billing issue.
Baiungo said he’s in the process of filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit as frivolous.
BDN writer Sasha Ray contributed reporting.