Santiago Calatrava

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Santiago Calatrava Valls
Born (1951-07-28) 28 July 1951 (age 61)
Benimàmet, Valencia, Spain
Nationality Spanish
Education Polytechnic University of Valencia
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Engineering career
Engineering discipline Structural engineer, Architect, Sculptor
Institution memberships Institution of Structural Engineers
Practice name Santiago Calatrava
Significant projects Athens Olympic Sports Complex
Auditorio de Tenerife
Alamillo bridge
Chords Bridge
Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències
Liège-Guillemins railway station
Significant awards AIA Gold Medal
IStructE Gold Medal
Eugene McDermott Award
Prince of Asturias Award
Auguste Perret Prize

Santiago Calatrava Valls (Valencian pronunciation: [santiˈaɣo kalaˈtɾava ˈvaʎs], born 28 July 1951) is a Spanish architect, sculptor and structural engineer whose principal office is in Zürich, Switzerland. He has offices in Zürich, Paris, Valencia, and New York City (where he now resides).

Contents

Early life and education[edit]

Calatrava was born in Benimàmet, an old municipality now integrated as an urban part of Valencia, Spain, where he pursued his undergraduate architecture degree at the Polytechnic University of Valencia[1] along with a post-graduate course in urbanism. During his schooldays, he also undertook independent projects with a group of fellow students, bringing out two books on the vernacular architecture of Valencia and Ibiza. Following graduation in 1975, he enrolled in the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland, for graduate work in civil engineering. In 1981, after completing his doctoral thesis, "On the Foldability of Space Frames", he started his architecture and engineering practice. His mother's family were of Jewish heritage, but had nominally converted during the Spanish Inquisition of the fifteenth century.[2]

Career[edit]

The Milwaukee Art Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.

Calatrava's early career was largely dedicated to bridges and railway stations, with designs that elevated the status of civil engineering projects to new heights. His Montjuic Communications Tower in Barcelona, Spain (1991) in the heart of the 1992 Olympics site, as well as the Allen Lambert Galleria in Toronto, Canada (1992), were important works and turning points in his career, leading to a wide range of commissions. The Quadracci Pavilion (2001) of the Milwaukee Art Museum was his first building in the United States. Calatrava's entry into high-rise design began with an innovative 54-story-high twisting tower called Turning Torso (2005), located in Malmö, Sweden.

Calatrava has designed a futuristic train station, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, at the rebuilt World Trade Center in New York City.

Calatrava's style has been heralded as bridging the division between structural engineering and architecture. In the projects, he continues a tradition of Spanish modernist engineering that included Félix Candela, Antonio Gaudí, and Rafael Guastavino. Nonetheless, his style is also very personal, and derives from numerous studies of the human body and the natural world.

On 10 December 2011 he was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture for a five year renewable term by Pope Benedict XVI.[3]

In May 2012, Architect Santiago Calatrava was accused of 'bleeding Valencia dry'. Calatrava has charged some €100m (£81m) to the Valencia government, according to the website, established by the leftwing Esquerra Unida party. The party says it has managed to see copies of bills paid by the People's party regional government to the architect, who is now based in Zurich.[4]

In Mar 2013 , A supreme Italian court asked Mr Calatrava to pay back 1 million euros for overpricing a bridge in Venice. Many complains also in his home town Valencia. [5]

Recent projects[edit]

Allen Lambert Galleria at Brookfield Place, in Toronto, Canada
Puente del Alamillo at night, made for the Expo 92, Seville, (1992)
Auditorio de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Bahnhof Stadelhofen in Zürich

80 South Street[edit]

One of his newest[when?] projects was a residential skyscraper, 80 South Street, located at that address in New York City's financial district facing the East River. It was composed of ten townhouses in the shape of cubes stacked on top of one another. The townhouses move up a main beam and follow a staggered ladder-like pattern, providing each townhouse with its own roof. The "townhouse in the sky" design was supposed to attract a high-profile clientele willing to pay a hefty US$30 million for each cube. As of 2008, this project had been canceled; the Manhattan real estate market had gone soft, and none of the ten multimillion-dollar townhouses had been sold.

Chicago Spire[edit]

Calatrava designed the now-canceled skyscraper, the Chicago Spire, in Chicago. Originally commissioned by Chicagoan Christopher Carley, the building site for the project was purchased by Irish developer Garrett Kelleher in July 2006 when Carley's financing plans fell through. Construction of the building was to begin in August 2007, for intended completion in 2011. The Chicago Spire would have been the tallest building in North America. The project was canceled in early 2010.[6]

Trinity River Bridges[edit]

Calatrava's work includes three bridges that will eventually span the Trinity River in Dallas, Texas. The first bridge, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, named after donor Margaret Hunt Hill, was planned to open for traffic in March 2012.[dated info] If the remaining bridges are completed, Dallas will join the Dutch county of Haarlemmermeer in having three Calatrava bridges.

Peace Bridge[edit]

Calatrava's design for the Peace Bridge, a 130m pedestrian bridge to span the Bow River in downtown Calgary, Alberta, Canada, will cost approximately $24.5 million. The project was approved by city council in early January 2009 and was scheduled for completion in fall 2010, but had not been completed as of the end of November, 2011, it is now estimated to be done in Spring of 2012. Public disclosure of Peace Bridge plans was made on 28 July 2009, and it was described as a sleek, elegant contribution to downtown Calgary. However, there was an uproar from Calgarians, since there was a bridge very similar to Calatrava's design built in Toronto, at a much lesser cost. The design model showed a sleek, tubular, single-span red-and-white trestle, offering separate pathways for cyclists and pedestrians. The bridge is expected to serve up to 5,000[7] pedestrians and cyclists daily.

University of South Florida[edit]

On 16 June 2009, it was announced that Calatrava would be designing the first building of the new University of South Florida Polytechnic campus in Lakeland, Florida. This will be his first work in the southeastern United States.

Calatrava as sculptor[edit]

Calatrava is also a prolific sculptor and painter, claiming that the practice of architecture combines all the arts into one. In 2003, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City held an exhibition of his artistic and architectural work, entitled "Santiago Calatrava: Sculpture Into Architecture." Exhibitions of his work have also taken place in Germany, England, Spain, Italy and elsewhere.

Notable works[edit]

Atrium of Brookfield Place, Toronto, Canada (1992)
L'Umbracle at the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències in Valencia, Spain (1996)
Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències, Valencia, Spain (1996)
Milwaukee Art Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA (2001)
Gare do Oriente, Lisbon, Portugal (1998)
Calatrava bridge in Petah Tikva, Israel
Medio Padana TAV Station, Reggio Emilia, Italy
Turning Torso in Malmö, Sweden (2005)
Chords Bridge for pedestrians and train in Jerusalem, Israel (2008)
Technion Obelisk in Haifa, Israel
Ciudad Ciencias (Science City)

Completed[edit]

Under construction/proposed[edit]

Calatrava has also submitted designs for a number of notable projects which were eventually awarded to other designers, including the Reichstag in Berlin and the East London River Crossing.

Unbuilt projects[edit]

  • Collserola communications tower in Barcelona (1991). A tower shaped like a big white spaceship was proposed, but Norman Foster ultimately designed the tower.
  • A bridge in Toronto to the Toronto Island Airport. Locals did not support the airport.
  • A campus building for Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. His design was dropped for a less expensive design.[11]
  • New cathedral for the Diocese of Oakland, California, USA. Preliminary design dropped in favor of that by local architect Craig Hartman (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, San Francisco).
  • New bridge across Cávado River, Barcelos, Portugal. It was dropped due to lack of funds.
  • Substitute bridge (Wettstein Bridge) across Rhine River, Basel, Switzerland. It did not pass the cantonal referendum. A less expensive bridge was built instead.
  • 80 South Street, 835-foot-tall (255 m) stack of 10 condominium units on New York City's East River, starting at $27 Million each.[12]
  • Chicago Spire in Chicago, IL. Lack of funding

Recognition[edit]

Calatrava has received numerous recognitions. In 1988, he was awarded with the Fazlur Khan International Fellowship by the SOM Foundation.[13] In 1990, he received the "Médaille d'Argent de la Recherche et de la Technique", in Paris. In 1992 he received the prestigious Gold Medal from the Institution of Structural Engineers. In 1993, the Museum of Modern Art in New York held a major exhibition of his work called "Structure and Expression". In 1998 he was elected to become a member of "Les Arts et Lettres", in Paris. In 2004, he received the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

In 2005, Calatrava was awarded the Eugene McDermott Award by the Council for the Arts of MIT. The award is among the most esteemed arts awards in the US.[14]

He is also a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council.[15]

Awards[edit]

Criticism[edit]

Calatrava's work in Bilbao has been criticized for impracticality. The airport lacks facilities and the bridge's glass tiles are prone to break and get slippery under the local weather,[16] which impelled the local administration to add anti-slip treads to its decking, altering the appearance of the bridge. In 2007, Calatrava sued Bilbao[17] for allowing Arata Isozaki to remove a bar from the bridge to connect it to the Isozaki Atea towers. The judge ruled against Calatrava, on the grounds that, although the building design is protected by intellectual property law, public safety is more important than intellectual property.[18] In a 2009 appeal, he received €30,000 in compensation. The Isozaki joint has been cited as both bold and destructive.[by whom?]

Calatrava gifted the Municipality of Venice with the project of a new bridge on the "Canal Grande" in 1996. As of 2007, the project was still under construction and has gone through numerous structural changes, because of the mechanical instability of the structure and the excessive weight of the bridge,[19] which would cause the banks of the canal to fail. In 10 years the project had been inspected by more than 8 different consultants and the cost had risen to three times the original expectations.[20] The work was finally completed in August 2008. The bridge has been criticized for its impractical design; it has many steps embedded in its relatively steep pavement, which makes it uncomfortable to walk on, especially for the elderly. Moreover, it does not have a ramp, so that it cannot be used by wheelchair users.

Some of Calatrava's works have been plagued with cost overruns, secrecy, and construction problems.[21] For example, Calgary's Peace Bridge, which was slated to open in 2010, was delayed due to faulty welding. The bridge is open for use as of March 24, 2012.

The Domecq Group has sued Calatrava and the building company Ferrovial to pay for the repairs in the cover of the 2001 Ysios winery in Alavan Rioja, Spain.[22] The aluminium and cedar cover leaks water.

Exhibits[edit]

A special exhibition was presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in March 2006.[23][24]

Personal life[edit]

Calatrava's nephew Álex Calatrava is a professional tennis player. Two of Calatrava's sons have completed or are in the process of completing advanced degrees in Engineering from the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University in New York City. His other son has just finished law school at Columbia University.

References[edit]

  1. ^ http://smu.edu/newsinfo/releases/m2013b.html
  2. ^ http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2005-A-Fi/Calatrava-Santiago.html
  3. ^ NOMINA DI MEMBRI DEL PONTIFICIO CONSIGLIO DELLA CULTURA
  4. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/08/architect-santiago-calatrava-valencia
  5. ^ http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2013/03/12/valencia/1363117691_776936.html
  6. ^ Calatrava Dances onto a New Stage - Business Week
  7. ^ "The Peace Bridge hits the mark". City of Calgary. Retrieved 2013-05-29. 
  8. ^ SMU News release about sculpture's unveiling
  9. ^ High-rise towers on stilts plan for Liffey – Irish Architectural News
  10. ^ http://oglobo.globo.com/rio/ancelmo/posts/2012/09/29/ponto-final-467745.asp
  11. ^ Graphic of the Ryerson Centre for Computing and Engineering, Ryerson Centre for Computing and Engineering, Toronto, Canada, Photo, Stock Image, Photograph | Emporis.com
  12. ^ Proposed: 80 South Street - Lower Manhattan
  13. ^ "SOM Foundation Fellows Archive". 
  14. ^ Established to honor Eugene McDermott, founder of Texas Instruments and long-time friend and benefactor to MIT, the award was created by the Council for the Arts at MIT in 1974, and further endowed by Eugene's wife, Margaret. Since its inception, the Council has bestowed the award upon 31 individuals producing creative work in the performing, visual and media arts, as well as authors, art historians and patrons of the arts.
  15. ^ Design Futures Council Senior Fellows http://www.di.net/about/senior_fellows/
  16. ^ Entre losetas y y arquitectos 'estrellas', El Correo, 24 February 2007.
  17. ^ Calatrava lleva a los tribunales su guerra con Isozaki por los puentes de Uribitarte, El Correo, 22 February 2007.
  18. ^ El juez absuelve al Ayuntamiento de Bilbao de la demanda interpuesta por Santiago Calatrava, El Mundo, 26 November 2007.
  19. ^ [1],La Repubblica, 7 May 2007.
  20. ^ [2],L'Espresso, 8 May 2007.
  21. ^ ELPAIS.com – Sólo texto – Calatrava y sus desmanes
  22. ^ Los “patinazos” de Calatrava, Descubrir el arte, 17 April 2013.
  23. ^ The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Special Exhibitions: Santiago Calatrava: Sculpture Into Architecture
  24. ^ Images from the March 2006 Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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