2024-05-02T05:43:38-04:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/149936171/it-looks-like-a-dove-or-a-carcass-christopher-hawthorne-on-calatrava-s-transportation-hub Nicholas Korody 2016-03-23T13:25:00-04:00 >2021-07-23T16:40:55-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/xs/xs3h0k8k5krl59tr.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey...has been so chastened by the cost overruns and construction delays that it declined to hold even a modest ribbon-cutting. When a bureaucracy turns down a major opportunity to pat itself on the back, you know things have turned sour. Turned acid, really. Still, everyone seems to agree that the main hall, which stretches beneath a glass and white-steel roof and which Calatrava calls the Oculus, is beautiful. But I didn't find it beautiful...</p></em><br /><br /><p><em>"...at least not in the way that Calatrava's finest work, fluid and precise, often is. I found it structurally overwrought and emotionally underwhelming, straining for higher meaning, eager to wring some last drops of mournful power from a site that is already crammed with official, semi-official and indirect memorials."</em><br><br>For related coverage of Santiago Calatrava's $4B "elaborate headstone in the crowded ground zero graveyard," as Hawthorne calls it, check out these links:</p> <ul><li><a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/149503521/4-billion-later-calatrava-s-eye-candy-transit-hub-opens" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">$4 billion later, Calatrava's eye-candy transit hub opens</a></li><li><a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/149362109/starchitect-designed-public-projects-are-often-long-delayed-and-way-over-budget" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Starchitect-Designed Public Projects Are Often Long Delayed and Way Over Budget</a></li><li><a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/146115559/port-authority-officially-confirms-march-opening-date-for-wtc-transportation-hub-oculus" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Port Authority officially confirms March opening date for WTC Transportation Hub Oculus</a></li><li><a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/141212275/leaking-water-delays-opening-of-world-trade-center-transit-hub-s-luxury-shopping-mall" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Leaking water delays opening of World Trade Center Transit Hub's luxury shopping mall</a></li><li><a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/132336245/massive-spine-skylight-in-calatrava-s-wtc-oculus-nears-completion" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Massive 'spine' skylight in Calatrava's WTC Oculus nears completion</a></li><li><a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/127639137/calatrava-i-have-been-treated-like-a-dog" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Calatrava: "I have been treated like a dog."</a></li></ul>