In the U.S., he isn’t getting asked to compete for new projects at all, he said, amid criticism of the rail project’s delays and costs. [...]
These overruns and years of delay have taken a toll on Mr. Calatrava’s reputation, with local press and some observers painting him as an architect prone to overruns—a point he believes is quite unfair.
“It has not been easy for me,” he said. After living in the city for 12 years and feeling pride in the city, “I have been treated like a dog.”
— wsj.com
Previously:
20 Comments
God forbid money be spent on infrastructure... More investment money in disruptive dating apps please (and Wall Street bailouts)
poor mutt.
Calatravra's architecture is weak and expensive.
If we took the 4,000,000,000.00 and put it down to create high speed rail on the east coast, then we're talking about spending on infrastructure, although $151,000,000,000.00 is since amount, but well worth it.
Good riddance...who wants this shit?
The way I've always looked at things like this - If you want me to be responsible for everything, then hire me to do everything, then pay me to do everything. The problem with people like Calatrava is they can't do everything....
Past generations would laugh at how hard it is for us to build a simple train hub... And it's 2015, why don't we have Flying cars, much less high speed rail. Probably has more to do with extreme private and public corruption in the media and economy and politics. No coindidence that private developments are celebrated while public ones are slammed by critics
^Old friend was a 3rd generation of the oldest GC in town, dating back to the late 1800’s. When he closed the company he cleaned out the archives and showed me ledgers where they expensed dead horses, said guys got killed all the time…used to be that the dog wagged the tail, today the tail is wagging the dog.
There are a lot of other players and factors that blew up the WTC PATH budget. Calatrava's rep just made him an easy scapegoat.
I don't care what he works on; I hate his work. Charlatan Epigones.
four BILLION dollars? for THAT???
milwaukee art museum budget $35 mil... final cost $127mil... all his shit is the same... maybe he should hire gehry after schematic design... Calatrava has no idea how to fabricate his forms... oh yeah and he wants half of them to move. woof woof...
The grandiose scheme is no longer an appropriate or effective way of expressing human greatness. Our priorities have changed.... "The thrill is gone"
I kind of like his work, but it does seem to cost a lot and probably not well thought through. Interesting that he's so disliked. His sculptural approach is the favorite of modern architects. Must be something about the design that rubs people wrong but it reminds me of Gaudi and Mendelsohn's WW1 sketches.
For me, I don't like his work because his "sculptural approach" is not responsive and purely subjective. Once society, and the architectural community, became convinced through his work that technology and engineering has resolved many of the once-thought impossible engineering problems, his work (at least for me) became irrelevant and pase. The purpose of his work is to show that anything can be engineered and not confined to the traditional ways of thinking about structures. Beyond that, he's not a truly meaningful architect to me.
You give a gun to a chimp and the chimp shoots someone - you don't blame the chimp...
A number of Calatrava's projects have had the same cost issue. I think he probably deserves a fair amount of blame, but shouldn't be the sole scapegoat. If he was just an architect by training maybe he would receive less blame for his extravagance......
++++samuel
besides the fact that he is well into the 8 digit club and his fees are massive and all his clients seem to just keep finding the funds, his experimental approach, etc.......oh wait those are all qualities most of wish we had......you would do something better if you were capable, but you are not................btw i overheard a contractor explain they made 55 custom buckets for the man lifts to fit into the hard to reach parts of the NYC job, wonder what that change order cost? i find projects like that interesting to be quite honest. no toola available, let us modify and design the tools.......have done a few mast climbers and complex rigger stuff in the past; quite fun
I think your on to something Bulgar Blogger. Why not be sculptural while resolving an actual problem? His work does seem a bit self satisfying, but then again, isn't most starchitect's work today? I guess the anthropomorphism seems contrived.
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