Santiago Calatrava

This article deals with the architect and civil engineer. For the municipality of Jaén, see Santiago de Calatrava

Santiago Calatrava Valls (Benimámet, July 28, 1951) is a Spanish architect, civil engineer and sculptor. Among the awards and recognitions it has received, the 1999 Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts stands out, the National Architecture and National Civil Engineering awards, both in 2005, and the 2015 European Architecture Award. Currently, it has offices in New York, Doha and Zurich.

Biography

Academic stage

L'Hemisfèric in the City of Arts and Sciences (Valencia, Spain).

Auditorio de Tenerife (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain).

Montjuic Communication Tower (Barcelona, 1992)

Alamillo Bridge, Seville.

From the age of eight he studied at the School of Fine Arts where he formally began his preparation as a draftsman and painter. At the age of 13, his family sent him to Paris through a student exchange program. Back in Valencia, after attending night classes at the School of Fine Arts and Crafts in Burjasot, Santiago Calatrava began his Architecture degree at the Polytechnic University of Valencia in 1969, where he graduated in 1974 and completed a postgraduate course in urbanism, being a disciple of the eminent architect from Cuenca Juan Carlos Jiménez. Subsequently, Calatrava, who was interested in the great works of the classical masters and who wanted to further his training, moved to Zurich in 1975, where he studied civil engineering at the Federal Institute of Technology, (ETHZ, for its initials in German). in which he graduated with a doctorate in Technical Sciences with the thesis About the folding of structures and also taught in 1979.

He was awarded the National Architecture Award from the Ministry of Housing corresponding to the year 2005 for his long and prestigious professional career.

Jobs and projects

After completing his studies, he worked as an assistant professor at the Federal Institute of Technology, where he began to accept small commissions and also participate in competitions for new projects. In 1983 he was awarded his first work of any importance, the Stadelhofen Railway Station, located next to the center of Zurich where he had also established his office. The following year, Calatrava designed the Bac de Roda bridge in Barcelona, which was the first that began to give him some international recognition. This would be followed by the Lusitania bridge in Mérida (1991), the Alamillo bridge in Seville (1992) and the 9 de Octubre bridge in Valencia (1995).

In 1989 Calatrava opened his second office in Paris, while he was working on the project for the Lyon Airport Railway Station called Lyon-Saint-Exupéry TGV Station. Two years later he created his third office, this time in Valencia, where he was working on a large-scale project, the City of Arts and Sciences .

In 1992, Calatrava signed the Montjuïc Communications Tower, on the occasion of the 1992 Olympic Games, and one of the bridges of the Universal Exposition of Seville, the Alamillo Bridge, which connects the Seville capital and the neighboring town of Beds. In 2003, the Auditorio de Tenerife building in the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife was completed. Some of the most prestigious newspapers in the world were present at its inauguration, such as The New York Times or Financial Times, among others.

In 2009 he inaugurated the Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin (Ireland). Samuel Beckett Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge, linking Macken Street on the south side of the River Liffey, with Guild Street and North Wall Quay, in the Docklands area of Dublin.

Roundhouse Building in the Swiss town of Suhr.

In 2010 he signed the Roundhouse building, in the town of Suhr, canton of Aargau (Switzerland). In 2014, Santiago Calatrava was selected to carry out the reconstruction project of the Greek Orthodox Church destroyed as a result of the attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York. In his design, Calatrava has been inspired by forms of iconography Byzantine, in the style of Hagia Sophia. The church will replace the four-storey early 20th century 20th century church that was destroyed.

In 2016, he opened the New York transportation hub Oculus. Already in 2003 it was awarded the construction of said intermodal infrastructure of the 1 World Trade Center, in New York, in the so-called Ground Zero generated after the attacks of September 11, 2001. The interchange combines the transport of three different means: trains commuter service for the Trans-Hudson Port Authority, the New York subway, and the rail link to John F. Kennedy International Airport. Calatrava has designed a glass and steel structure that will look, in his own words, like "a bird released by the hands of a child."

Style

Night Panoramics of the City of Arts and Sciences (Valencia, Spain).

Daily panoramic of the City of Arts and Sciences, in Valencia, Spain.

Main page of Gare do Oriente Station, Lisbon, Portugal

Auditorium of Tenerife, panoramic.

Turning Torso. The Building has been awarded the '10 year Award' award. (Malmö, Sweden).

He is considered an architect specializing in large structures. Calatrava has received numerous awards and recognitions for his work. Among them stands out the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts that he received in 1999. He has also been named Doctor honoris causa twenty times.

It has influences from Fernando Higueras, Jørn Utzon, Antoni Gaudí, and Gothic and Roman architecture.

Acknowledgments

Calatrava has received numerous awards for his design and engineering work, including his use of steel and cement. In 1998, he was awarded the Fazlur Khan International Fellowship by the SOM Foundation. In 1990, he received the "Médaille d'Argent de la Recherche et de la Technique", in Paris. In 1992, he received the prestigious Gold Medal from the Institution of Structural Engineers. In 1993, the Museum of Modern Art in New York hosted an exhibition of his work called "Structure and Expression." In 1998 he was chosen to become a member of 'Les Arts et Lettres', in Paris. In 2005 he received the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

In 2005, Calatrava was awarded the Eugene McDermott Prize by the MIT Council for the Arts. It is one of the most appreciated related to the arts in the United States.

He is also a Senior Member of the Design Futures Council.

Calatrava has received a total of twenty honorary university degrees in recognition of his work. In 2013, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Georgia Institute of Technology, an award that has been bestowed on only a small number of people.

Representative works

BCE Building (Toronto, Canada).

Puente de la Mujer, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Bodegas Ysios in Laguardia (Álava).

• City of Arts and Sciences (Valencia, Spain):

• L'Hemisfèric (Cine IMAX and Planetarium)
• Príncipe Felipe Science Museum
• L'Umbracle (covered landscape)
• Palacio de las Artes Reina Sofia (edifice with three auditoriums for opera, music and dance)
• Agora
• Puente de l'Assut de l'Or
• Vertical towers of houses, offices and hotels Alicante, Castellón and Valencia and horizontal tower Mediterranean - project

• Auditorio de Tenerife (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain)
• Lusitania Bridge (Mérida, Spain)
• Puente de Vistabella (Murcia, Spain)
• Railway Station (Lieja, Belgium)
• Exhibition Bridge (known popularly as "La Peineta") (Valencia, Spain)
• Bridge of Europe (Orleans, France)
• Estación de Alameda, MetroValencia (Valencia, Spain)
• Airport Railway Station (Lyon, France)
• Art Museum (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
• Bridge 9 October (Valencia, Spain)
• Puente Peatonal Campo Volantín Zubizuri (Bilbao, Spain)
• Itsas Aurre Bridge - Puerto de Ondárroa (Ondárroa, Spain)
• Centro Internacional de Ferias y Congresos (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain)
• East Railway Station (Lisbon, Portugal)
• Bilbao Airport (Bilbao, Spain)
• James Joyce Bridge (Dublin, Ireland)
• Samuel Beckett Bridge (Dublin, Ireland)
• Montjuic Telecommunications Tower (Barcelona, Spain)
• Alamillo Bridge (Sevilla, Spain)
• Brookfield Place (Toronto, Canada)
• Llotja de Sant Jordi - Plaza de España (Alcoy, Spain)
• Bac de Roda Bridge (Barcelona, Spain)
• Tabourettli Theatre (Basilea, Switzerland)
• Stadelhofen Railway Station (Zúrich, Switzerland)
• Puente de la Mujer (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
• Three bridges in the community Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands
• Palacio de Congresos de Oviedo - (Oviedo, Spain)
• Estación de Reggio Emilia AV, Reggio Emilia, Italy
• Three bridges on the A1 motorway, Reggio Emilia, Italy
• Turning Torso (Malmö, Sweden - opened on August 27, 2005)
• Bodegas Ysios (Laguardia, Spain)
• Kuwait Pavilion (Expo'92, Seville, Spain)
• Bridge of the Constitution in Venice, Italy (opened on September 11, 2008 in the middle of a polemic for not being accessible to the disabled)
• Stretched Bridge of Jerusalem (Jerusalem, Israel)
• Athens Olympic Sports Complex (Athens, Greece)
• Katehaki Bridge in Athens, Greece
• Remodeling of the University of Zurich Switzerland
• San Francisco de Paula Bridge (Cosenza, Italy)

• Recinto de Ferias y Mercados de Castellón de la Plana, Spain
• Obelisco de la Caja, in Madrid, Spain
• Museu do Amanhã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• City of Sport (Rome, Italy)

Awards

• 1979 Auguste Perret Prize
• 1987 UIA Auguste Perret Award
• 1988 Barcelona City Art Award
• 1991 Award for Good Building
• 1992 Brunel Prize
• 1992 VI Dragados y Construcciones Award
• 1992 Gold Medal of the Institution of Structural Engineers of London
• 1993 Toronto Municipality Urban Design Award
• 1993 Urban Design Award
• 1995 Prize for the Construction of the Canton of Lucerne
• 1996 Gold Medal for "Excellence in the Fine Arts" of the Ministry of Culture of Granada
• 1997 ECCS European Steel Design Award
• 1998 Brunel Award
• 1999 Prince of Asturias Prize in Arts
• 1999 Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards: Building and Structures
• 2000 Das Goldene Dach
• 2000 Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts from the Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University
• 2001 ECCS European Steel Design Award 2001
• 2002 Best Large Structure, Excellence in Structural Engineering Design Award
• 2002 Il Principe e l’Architetto
• 2003 The Silver Beam Award
• 2003 ECCS European Steel Design Award
• 2004 James Parks Morton Interfaith Award from the Interfaith Center of New York
• 2004 NCSEA Outstanding Project Award
• 2004 IABSE Outstanding Structure Award
• 2005 ECCS European Steel Design Award (for the Olympic Stadium, Athens)
• 2005 ECCS European Steel Design Award (for the three bridges on the Hoofdvart in the Netherlands)
• 2005 MIPIM Award
• 2005 Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects
• 2005 National Civil Engineering Award
• 2006 Eugene McDermott Prize in Arts of the Council for the Arts del MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
• Designated as Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in Davos
• 2006 ESCN European Award for Excellence in Concrete (by Turning Torso in Malmo)
• 2006 ESCN European Award for Excellence in Concrete (by Liege-Guillemins Station in Belgium)
• 2006 National Architecture Award
• 2006 fib Award for Outstanding Concrete Structures
• 2006 Sidney L. Strauss Award
• 2006 Leadership Award, New York Building Congress
• 2007
  • National Architecture Prize (Spain)
  • Design Futures Council Senior Fellow
• 2007 “Son Predilecto”, Municipality of Valencia
• 2007 Urban Visionaries Award
• 2007 National Architecture Award
• 2008 Gran Cruz de la Orden de Jaime I el Conquistador
• 2009 Gresol Foundation Award
• 2009 ECCS European Steel Design Award
• 2009 Golden Belgian Building Award
• 2010 Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service
• 2010 Honorary citizen of the city of Liège
• 2010 Project of the Decade Real Estate Award, The Business Journal
• 2011 Brevet Wallonie Certificate
• 2012 AIA National Medal
• 2012 ECCS European Award for Steel Bridges
• 2013 CIS ICCA – Canadian Institute of Steel Construction, Steel Design Awards of Excellence
• 2015 European Architecture Award

Honorary Degrees

• 2016 Doctor Honoris Causa of the National Polytechnic Institute

Samuel Beckett Bridge, located in Dublin, Ireland.

Criticism

Calatrava's works have been criticized, mainly for four reasons:

1. High budgets (which also tend to increase during construction, which is for the benefit of the architect).
2. High maintenance costs.
3. The resemblance between the works.
4. The severe structural and functional deficiencies they have had.

Bilbao

Mocket installed on the glazed of the Zubizuri bridge in a later way.

Calatrava's work in Bilbao has been criticized as impractical: Bilbao airport lacks optimal facilities for travelers, with an open-air waiting room in a very rainy city and on the Zubizuri bridge the tiles of The glass breaks easily (600 of them had to be replaced in 10 years, at a cost to the City Council of 300,000 euros) and they are slippery when it rains, which is why several pedestrians slipped on it throughout the days. years. In 2007, Calatrava sued the Bilbao city council for allowing an Arata Isozaki pedestrian walkway to be built and attached to the bridge. In the first instance, the complaint filed against the Bilbao City Council for infringement of intellectual property on the ZubiZuri bridge was dismissed on the understanding that, although its work has been altered, the public interest prevails over copyright. However, after An appeal, in March 2009, the Vizcaya Provincial Court rectified the criteria of the Bilbao Commercial Magistrate and ruled in favor of the plaintiff, ordering the council to pay €30,000 to the architect as compensation. Said amount was donated. The Irish city of Dublin also has a bridge with these same characteristics, the James Joyce Bridge, of which no type of incident is known.^{[citation required]}

Venice

Calatrava, in 1996, was chosen for the construction of a bridge over the Grand Canal in Venice. Since the project was approved numerous structural changes have been made due to the mechanical instability of the structure and the excessive weight of the bridge, which could cause the canal banks to collapse. The work was stopped briefly shortly after starting. In ten years the project has been inspected by more than eight different consultants and the cost of the project has increased more than three times the original budget; in 2008 the bridge was finished and the mayor decided not to celebrate the inauguration due to the controversy generated during the construction.

Oviedo

Another controversy arose over the Princess Letizia Conference Center built in Oviedo, since it had a mobile device as a visor that, however, could not be raised due to problems with its hydraulic mechanism. This building consists of a conference center, a hotel, a shopping center and the Ministry of Health of the Principality of Asturias. This mobile device has been successfully implemented in other projects by the architect in Milwaukee and in the Faculty of Innovation, Science and Technology of the Florida Polytechnic University, which has recently been awarded Project of the Year at the ENR specialized magazine awards..

Also in Oviedo, at the end of 2007, three leaning towers 130 meters high and 39 floors were projected at the entrance to the city from the north, known as the 'trillizas' de Calatrava, although later the mayor of the city discarded the project for not achieving the "necessary political or social consensus".

In the media

The most common and widespread criticism of Calatrava's work was collected by the American newspaper The New York Times in 2009. In its pages, it was stated that Calatrava's buildings present "a worrying incongruity between the extravagance of its architecture and the limited purpose it serves", in reference to the station that Calatrava has designed for ground zero in New York. It hardly adapts to the environment in which it is built, nor in what refers to the weather, nor in what refers to the natural setting or architectural environment in which the new construction will be framed. Likewise, the Tenerife auditorium has been criticized for not being accessible for the physically disabled. In October 2014, Santiago Calatrava responded to many of the criticisms made in an interview published by El País, in the who claimed that he was the subject of a smear campaign for electoral purposes. In addition, he attributed the criticism received to failures in the execution of the works and inadequate maintenance of the buildings and bridges created by him.

Legal proceedings

On August 9, 2006, the eaves of the Palacio de Congresos in Oviedo collapsed. As a result, the Allianz insurance company filed a lawsuit against Calatrava and his team. The Superior Court of Justice of Asturias sentenced the defendants to pay 3,510,000 euros because it considered them responsible for a failure in the propping system, which was not correctly calculated. After filing an appeal, in February 2014 he was sentenced again by the Provincial Court of Oviedo, with an amount to be paid on this occasion of 2,960,000 euros.

In 2012, the Italian Court of Auditors claimed 3.4 million euros from Santiago Calatrava and those responsible for the project for the fourth bridge over the Grand Canal in Venice for presenting "chronic pathologies" consequence of a defective design of the work. Finally, the Italian Court of Accounts dismissed the accusation against Calatrava, considering that there were no responsibilities for the delays and the cost of the work.

In 2013, the Generalitat Valenciana also proposed taking legal action for the landslides that occurred in December of the same year in part of the ceramic covering of the Reina Sofía Palace of the Arts. As published by El País, the 'trencadís' of the Palacio de las Artes fell due to the misuse of the adhesive. Finally, by an amicable agreement, the architect and the construction joint venture paid for the necessary repairs without actually taking legal action.

In April 2013, Bodegas Ysios sues Calatrava and asks for 2 million to fix the roof of a winery that the architect designed, which has leaks and humidity.