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

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

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

Only one of the new buildings is ready, its centrepiece artwork had to be dismantled after bits fell off – and people are more excited about getting their first Ikea. [...]

A €155m new station, designed by Santiago Calatrava as a swooping sci-fi bird, is so far no more than a concrete foundation slab. It replaces a much-loved 1950s station by a local architect, and it’s now optimistically scheduled to open in 2018, having escalated to four times its original budget. — theguardian.com

After 13 years of negotiations with the region's Port Authority, work has begun on the Greek Orthodox church that will be the only non-secular building at Ground Zero. Many believe it will become one of the most visited churches in the US. It is planned to be completed by Easter 2017. — bbc.com

Back in 2008, architect Santiago Calatrava placed an $11.34M lien on the Chicago Spire in the hope of being paid for his work on the project, which officially died in November, having never amounted to anything more than a hole in the ground. Now, Crain's Chicago reports that Calatrava may have missed the two-year window he had to file a lawsuit to enforce his claim. — curbed.com

the Byzantine-inspired structure will “glow from the inside,” through the combination of light marble fused with glass and backlit with LEDs. — NYT

[Calatrava's] at work in the new transit station at the World Trade Center in New York, but that project is massively over budget and behind schedule and it's highlighted some of Calatrava's legal troubles back in Spain. [...]

The architect was supposed to be in Spain this week testifying as a suspect in a fraud case. Prosecutors say he got 3.6 million dollars to design yet another Spanish convention center that was never built, but Calatrava didn't show up for his court date. — npr.org

The Irish developer behind the Chicago Spire said it has found an investor to pay its creditors, allowing it to emerge from bankruptcy and possibly restart work on the long-stalled residential project. — chicagotribune.com

Though easy targets for fiscal hawks, public architecture that’s luxurious and dramatic — even excessive — should be ours as a right. — Jacobin

Santiago Calatrava is facing legal action from his native city as the dazzling City of Arts and Sciences complex begins to fall apart just eight years after inauguration — telegraph.co.uk

The Santiago Calatrava: The Metamorphosis of Space exhibition celebrated its grand opening at the Braccio di Carlo Magno in Vatican City today.

Curated by Micol Forti of the Vatican Museums, the special exhibition presents over 140 artistic works of Calatrava, including his never-before-seen architectural models, sculptures, and watercolor drawings. — bustler.net