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BIG has unveiled renderings for its new Marengo Multimodal Transport Hub project in Toulouse, France’s fourth largest city. The 129,000-square-foot building connects the city center to the UNESCO-listed Canal du Midi and the Périole neighborhood and will be realized adjacent to the existing... View full entry
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has published revised plans for the new Midtown Bus Terminal. The scheme, designed by Foster + Partners, will replace the existing terminal that opened in 1950. The $10 billion facility will include a 2.1 million square foot terminal with a separate... View full entry
A new electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) terminal concept has been unveiled by Foster + Partners. The firm says its plan would augment the Dubai International Airport (DBX) and was developed in unison with Skyports Infrastructure, which Foster + Partners called a leader in advanced air... View full entry
The design of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s new Midtown Bus Terminal will be led by Foster + Partners, the firm and the transit organization announced recently. The Port Authority is in the process of replacing its aging 72-year-old facility and has contracted the team to... View full entry
BIG has unveiled updated plans for a new transportation hub in the heart of the Swedish city of Västerås. Named the Västerås Travel Center, the 17,000-square-meter structure will bring together all of the city’s transport infrastructure in one continuous landscape, under a dramatic, curved... View full entry
Grimshaw adds another transportation hub to their portfolio after being selected as winners of an international competition for Shenzhen Airport East Integrated Transport Hub. Sponsored by the China National Railway Corporation Limited and Shenzhen Municipal People's Government, the winning... View full entry
Just in time for the Independence Day weekend, Legoland is showing off an extensive remodel of its New York miniland, dominated by a towering replica of Manhattan’s One World Trade Center. [...]
Nearly a year in the making, the redesigned New York area includes a number of new buildings, a dozen more moving automobiles and a subway system with new cars and tracks that are illuminated and feature sound effects that mimic the real thing.
— San Diego Union-Tribune
The Legoland announcement proudly boasts these details:"The One World Trade Center LEGO model is built with more than 250,000 LEGO bricks, and took eight Master Model Builders more than 1200 hours to build. This dynamic structure weighs more than 1,000 pounds and towers at a record breaking... View full entry
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...
— the Los Angeles Times
"...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... View full entry
The hub opens on Thursday, or at least a part of it is opening, including most of the main hall, or Oculus, as it’s called. And at first blush, Mr. Calatrava’s architecture can almost — almost — make you forget what an epic boondoggle the whole thing has been. That virgin view, standing inside the Oculus and gazing up, is a jaw-dropper. — The New York Times
For a blow-by-blow of how Santiago Calatrava's transit hub came to be, check out Archinect's previous coverage:Port Authority officially confirms March opening date for WTC Transportation Hub OculusLeaking water delays opening of World Trade Center Transit Hub's luxury shopping mallMassive 'spine'... View full entry
Sure, the news was all but confirmed, but today the Port Authority made it official: The transit org announced that the World Trade Center Transportation Hub—anchored by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava's Oculus—will officially open in "the first week of March," per a press release. [...]
What that actually means for commuters: There will finally be a link between the World Trade Center PATH station and 11 NYC subway lines, along with the East River ferries.
— ny.curbed.com
Read the Port Authority's announcement in full here. The WTC Transportation Hub previously in the Archinect news: Leaking water delays opening of World Trade Center Transit Hub's luxury shopping mallMassive 'spine' skylight in Calatrava's WTC Oculus nears completionNYMag talks to Santiago... View full entry
A persistent water leak is among the problems that have delayed the opening of the mall, which was supposed to be operating by now, to the first half of 2016. It is the latest setback to bedevil the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, the $3.7 billion rail terminal that will also house Westfield’s $1.4 billion shopping center. [...]
The latest twist involves water penetration around the construction site of 3 World Trade Center, an office tower abutting the hub, which began in late summer.
— nytimes.com
Related on Archinect:Massive 'spine' skylight in Calatrava's WTC Oculus nears completionThere's a chance the Hudson is leaking into the WTC siteNYMag talks to Santiago Calatrava about his WTC Station, budget, reputation View full entry
Santiago Calatrava said the roof would open.
And evidently it will.
On Friday morning, a 5,700-pound glass panel was hoisted into place as a 355-foot-long operable skylight took final form in the Oculus pavilion of the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, designed by Mr. Calatrava. Another panel went up in the afternoon.
Those are among the last of 996 pieces of blast-resistant glass to have been installed at the Oculus since March 15. The glazing should be finished on Monday [...].
— nytimes.com
Here are some more photos of the skylight's construction progress in the past few weeks (courtesy of WTC Progress).More about the WTC Transportation Hub in the Archinect news:NYMag talks to Santiago Calatrava about his WTC Station, budget, reputationHow Cost of Train Station at World Trade Center... View full entry
This week Calatrava defended his projects. “The reality is that throughout my career I’ve tackled projects in Spain that I’m proud of,” he told Spanish daily El Mundo. [...]
At 63 years old, Calatrava said he hoped the best of his career was still to come. “Many of the architects I admire have given the best of themselves as they mature,” he said. “I’m hoping to do the same.”
— theguardian.com
Previously:Calatrava: "I have been treated like a dog."Legal Troubles Dog Famed Spanish Architect Santiago CalatravaCalatrava Wins Law Suit Against Spanish Political Party for SlanderA half-hearted defense of Calatrava View full entry
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:NYMag talks to Santiago Calatrava about his WTC Station, budget, reputationHow Cost of Train Station at World Trade Center Swelled to $4 BillionLegal Troubles Dog Famed Spanish Architect Santiago CalatravaPATH/Fail: The Story of the World’s Most Expensive Train Station View full entry
Calatrava told me that it wasn’t his job to monitor the budget. “It is very difficult,” he said. “I have never estimated anything in this project, because there was a whole team, maybe 25 people, working the whole time on cost estimation and cost control. But I kept looking at those fellows and telling them this is like geology: You only know what you have under your feet when you excavate.” — nymag.com
