Mr. Calatrava was paid approximately 94 million euros (about $127 million) for his work. How could that be, Mr. Blanco asks, when the opera house included 150 seats with obstructed views? Or when the science museum was initially built without fire escapes or elevators for the disabled? — NYT
Suzanne Daley visits Valencia, Spain a city that embraced Santiago Calatrava and is home to the huge (86 acres) City of Arts and Sciences, complex. Since completion of the project, costly oversights and repairs have engendered complaints and criticism of architect and his, some say overly formal and extravagant designs. Suzanne also reviews a number of other projects by Calatrava (PATH Station, the Ponte della Costituzione in Venice and his winery for Domecq) which have run into similar issues.
4 Comments
So the media builds up 'star architects' to the point where we think they control everything, from budgets to the responsibility of civic leaders, then the media turns around and tears the 'star architect' down because they are not actually gods?
Exactly, Darkman. And complaining that putting the mechanical equipment where it wouldn't impact the public space led to "time-consuming coordination" as if that doesn't happen on every. damn. project.
It's nice that in the comments a few Milwaukee residents weighed on how well their Calatrava is working and what a delight it is to experience.
I have "experienced" several Calatrava buildings and yes some spaces are fantastic but in most cases you can easily pick up planning and design problems that have no other explanation than it being bad architecture.
I will stick to two examples to keep it brief. The bridges mentioned in the article. I saw the Bilbao bridge before the municipality was forced to lay that ugly back mat to stop people from getting seriously injured. When I saw the bridge the glass was broken in places, there were warning signs all along the bridge indicating to the pedestrians that the surface was slippery and in some of the glass slabs there was some kind of grouting sprayed and glued to it to make it slightly less slippery. Bilbao is famous for its rain so there is no excuse there, you are dealing with real people braking legs because of a stupid aesthetic idea.
The Venice bridge is a structure built in the 21st century and does not care for disable people??? How could this be? and ok forget about the wheelchairs and blind people if you want... What about the thousands of tourists that are the source of income to the city? This bridge is suppose to connect the bus station area to the main island, people coming with suitcases etc find it very difficult to cross, and the irregular spacing of the steps is a set of traps for accidents waiting to happen (but they look nice...)
Seriously I don't understand how this office keeps on being awarded public projects.
Don't be so lame bro
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