BATON ROUGE - A legal fight over who's at fault for the tumultuous development surrounding Baton Rouge's downtown library has ended with the city-parish getting $4 million in a settlement with the contractor that designed it.

Court records show the city-parish's lawsuit was dismissed over the summer after those involved in the litigation reached a settlement.

The city sued the designer, WHLC Architecture, and its construction partners back in 2018 after a crack was found in the nearly completed library, creating fears that the structure could collapse. Officials briefly closed off downtown around the library until workers could place temporary supports under the building's overhang, which remained there for about a year.

The lawsuit halted construction for months, and emergency repairs ballooned the cost of the $14.5 million library. Just fixing the library was said to cost the city-parish another $1.9 million.

The library finally opened to the public in summer 2020.

The city-parish argued in its suit that WHLC "failed to detect the architectural flaw in its design pertaining to the structural steel and joint bracing's both during its design review, and during its project management of the construction."

The city-parish released the following statement Tuesday. 

"The litigation regarding the construction of the River Center Branch Library has concluded successfully! City-Parish more than pleased with the mediated settlement of $4 million. These funds will cover the costs of mitigation and corrective measures taken to ensure the finished River Center Branch Library is as originally envisioned, as well as safe and welcoming. The settlement dollars received will also fully address the legal costs and expert consultants who analyzed and successfully outlined the steps required to safely complete construction and open the River Center Library in June of 2020. We appreciate the work of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, the Parish Attorney’s Office, the contracted legal team, Walters, Papillion, Thomas, Cullens, LLC, and most importantly, the citizens of our parish for their patience and support."