Santiago Calatrava

Two years later, in 1994, he completed another notable train station, the Gare de Lyon Saint-Exupéry (1989–1994) at the Lyon airport in Satolas. This building was designed to be both a functional link between the airport and train station, the terminal for the high-speed TGV trains, and a symbol of the Rhone-Alps Region. The station is covered by a giant shell of steel and glass, 120 by 100 metres (390 by 330 ft), suspended at a maximum height of 40 metres (130 ft), and weighing 1,300 tonnes (1,300 long tons; 1,400 short tons). It is connected with the airport terminal by a 180 metres (590 ft) long glass and concrete bridge. The glass and steel sides and skylights of the terminal from the inside resemble a modernistic cathedral; the glass panels at the top are intended to suggest flight. From the outside, the station has been said to resemble a prehistoric animal, while the glass-and-steel bridge has been compared to a bird or a manta ray.[7]

The Gare do Oriente, or eastern train station, was constructed for the 1998 Lisbon World Exposition, and is located in a former industrial area. It was designed to bridge the wasteland which separated the residential area of the city from the Tagus River. Similar to the galleria he designed in Toronto, but on a grander scale, the interior of the station features a forest of white columns like gigantic trees that support the glass roof, 238 by 78 metres (781 by 256 ft), which covers the eight tracks. The station complex also includes a shopping center, and transport links by tram and metro to the center of the city. With its multiple arches and curves, the structure appears to be moving and ready to take off.[8]

One of his last projects in the 20th century was the Bilbao Airport in Spain, notable both for its unusual control tower, 42 metres (138 ft) high – made of concrete clad with aluminum, which widens as it grows taller, and which resembles a statue holding its hands in front of it – and for terminal buildings, where the white concrete structures are united with aluminum forms. The terminal buildings themselves lift upwards and seem to be trying to take off, giving them the airport the popular nickname of "The Dove".

The Quadracci Pavilion of the Milwaukee Art Museum (1994–2001) was Calatrava's first building in the United States, and his first museum. It displayed the technical innovations and forms he had first used in his railway stations and airports, but with more freedom of form and architectural theatrics. It is an addition to an existing building, constructed by Eero Saarinen in 1957 next to Lake Michigan, with a later addition in 1975 by David Kahler. The purpose of the new pavilion, as defined by the museum board, was to give the museum a new entrance, and especially "to redefine the identity of the museum with a strong image." Calatrava's design was selected after a competition entered by seventy-seven architects. Calatrava's solution was a glass and steel entry hall 2 metres (6.6 ft) high with a moveable sun screen roof, composed of two large wings made up of twenty-six smaller wings, from 8 to 32 metres (26 to 105 ft) in length. The sunscreen, weighing 115 tonnes (113 long tons; 127 short tons), can be hoisted up by a single pylon, like an enormous bird's wing, or lowered when the wind from the lake is stronger than 65 kilometres per hour (35 kn). The interior of the structure has a conference hall, exposition space, shops, and a restaurant overlooking the lake. He also designed a suspension footbridge between the center of the city and edge of the lake.[9]

The Bodegas Ysios winery in Laguardia, Spain (1998–2001) was designed as a symbol of the Rioja wines made by that winery. Built on a sloping site surrounded by vineyards, the 196-metre (643 ft) long building has an aluminum roof and a facade covered with laminated wood panels, alternating between convex and concave, with a roofline that ripples like a series of waves.[10]

The Auditorio de Tenerife, Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, is a concert hall with 1558 seats and a smaller chamber music hall of 428 seats. With a curving concrete cupola 60 metres (200 ft) high, crowned by a curving roof like a breaking wave, it dominates the city square and old town below. The shell is covered with ceramic tiles and the pavement and most of the floors are made of the local basalt stone. The unusual sculptural form of the building gives it a completely different appearance depending upon from where it is viewed. [10]

The Turning Torso in Malmö, Sweden, was Calatrava's first skyscraper, and was the first twisting skyscraper, a form which later appeared in other cities around the world from Shanghai to Moscow. The building was originally conceived by the architect as a sculpture of "seven cubes stacked on a steel support creating a spiral structure resembling a twisting spinal column." [11] The tower is 190 metres (620 ft) high, and twists a full ninety degrees from the base to the top. Each of the nine cubes cube is like a separate five-story building; each floor contains from one to five apartments. The support holding the structure together is the column of elevators and escalators which communicate between the cubes. A system of discreet cross beams on the exterior frame manage the torsion of the twisting building. In 2016, it was the tallest building in Scandinavia.[12]

For the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, Calatrava won the commission to cover the existing stadium with a new roof, to make a similar roof for the velodrome, and additionally to build four entrance gateways, a monumental sculpture to symbolize the games, and other architectural features to give harmony and variety to the complex. The roof for the stadium, in the form of bent "leaves" of laminated glass, is designed to reflect 90 percent of the sunlight. The roof covers 25,000 square metres (270,000 sq ft), and is supported by double-tied arches of tubular steel, with a span of 304 metres (997 ft) and a height of 60 metres (200 ft). It is 250 metres (820 ft) long and 20 metres (66 ft) high, suspended by cables from two parabolic arches. The Velodrome has a white cap supported by two concrete arches 45 metres (148 ft) high, weighing 4,000 tonnes (3,900 long tons; 4,400 short tons), from which the glass and steel roof is suspended. Calatrava also designed an enormous parabolic arch at the entrance and the Wall of Nations, a mobile sculpture of tubular steel which moves in a wavelike patterns.[13]

The largest group of buildings by Calatrava is found in his birthplace, Valencia, Spain, and was built in over a decade. It includes the City of Arts and Sciences (1991–2000) and the Opera house (1996–2006), all constructed on a plot of 35 hectares between a highway and a river on the east side of the city. The L'Hemisfèric, like a half-sunken globe, is placed in the centre, next to a large artificial lake, in which it seems to be sinking. The dome is covered by a metal screen which opens and closes, and the entrance opens like a human eye. On one side is the science museum, behind a line of leaning columns, and on the other is the newest structure, the massive shell of the opera house, described by Calatrava as a "monumental sculpture", which gives the impression of being continually in motion.[14]

The Liège-Guillemins railway station for high-speed trains in Liège, Belgium is covered with a lace-like roof of glass and steel 160 metres (520 ft) long and 32 metres (105 ft) high, covering the nine tracks and five platforms. The transparent roof seems to eliminate the distinction between indoors and outdoors.[1]

The conference center and exposition hall in the Spanish city of Oviedo combines two office buildings and a hotel, covered with horizontal bands of glass and steel and perched upon curving concrete pylons, with elliptical conference center, which includes a main theater, exposition hall and seminar rooms. The Center include another signature feature of Calatrava's work; a moveable sunscreen that folds and unfolds. The ceiling of the concert hall is an ascending series of arcs, which echo the curving rows of seats.[15]

Calatrava constructed a series of extraordinary bridges, the type of structure which originally brought him global attention, for cities around the world that wanted a symbol of modernity and daring. Among the largest and dramatic are three bridges over the Trinity River in Dallas, Texas. The first of these was the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, opened for traffic in March 2012. The bridge, carrying six lanes of traffic, is 209 metres (686 ft) long, with the appearance of being[16] suspended from an arc-shaped tubular steel pylon forty stories or 136 metres (446 ft) high by fifty-eight cables, ranging in length from 119 to 196 metres (390 to 643 ft). In form, the bridge resembles one of three bridges constructed in 2005–2005 on the Autostrada A1 in Reggio Emilia, Italy.[17][18] Work on the second bridge, the Margaret McDermott Bridge, began in 2011.[19]

The Peace Bridge in Calgary, Canada, built between 2008 and 2012, is a completely different bridge in purpose, scale and design. Built across the Bow River, and designed for pedestrians and cyclists, it is a glass and stew-wrapped tube 126 metres (413 ft) long. It appears extraordinary long for a bridge with no towers or pylons to hold it up. Calatrava described the form in his own particular engineering vocabulary as "defined by a helicoidal movement, with an ovoid cross section, with two clearly materialized tangential lanes expressing an internal architectural volume." [20]

The project for the new Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland, Florida (2009–2014) gave Calatrava the opportunity to design an entire campus in a unified style. The site covers 170 acres (69 ha) of land which once contained phosphorus mines, many of which have been filled with water creating small lakes.Calatrava's plan combined several small lakes into a central lake, which serves as a setting for the central structure, the Innovation, Science, and Technology (IST) building. The eye-shaped central building has an area of 200,000 square feet on two floors, and contains all the classrooms, faculty offices laboratories and public spaces until the other buildings are completed. The building has several signature Calatrava features, including an extendable sun scene on the roof, which entirely changes the appearance of the building when deployed, and whose form changes gradually as the sun moves. The terraces of the building are covered by a curving pergola, or screen, of steel, which reduces the direct sunlight by thirty percent. Inside, the corridors and central courtyard are lit by the central skylight. Plans for the building call for the installation of 1,860 square metres (20,000 sq ft) of solar panels on the sunscreen to provide energy for the building. The library of the university is also distinctive; it does not have a single book; all the collection is digitized.[21]

The structure has been called by some journalists a response to the criticism of the high price and technical flaws of some of Calatrava's earlier buildings. The review in Architecture magazine, the journal of the American Institute of Architects, reported: "The building is full of handsome and even some very impressive spaces, but none of the singularly breathtaking ones that have made Calatrava, despite his price tag, so attractive to clients looking for marketing splash to go with their museum wing or train station. It reflects serious attention to detail and the bottom line; this is the work of an architect actively trying to prove, or at least re-emphasize, his bona fides."[22]

The Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which opened in December 2015, is part of the redevelopment of the waterfront of Rio de Janeiro, and opened in time for the 2016 Summer Olympics in that city. The building is sited on a 7,600 square metres (82,000 sq ft) plaza next to the harbor, and surrounded by reflecting pools. The building is cantilevered 75 metres (246 ft) over the plaza, and 45 metres (148 ft) toward the sea. and gives the impression that it is floating on the water. Calatrava wrote, "The idea is that the building feels ethereal, almost floating on the sea, like a ship, a bird or a plant." The roof is equipped with moveable screens that adjust to the movements of the sun. The interior design is what Calatrava calls "archetypal" and simplified, to allow for exhibits in a greater variety of forms and sizes.

The museum also includes a number of ecological features; water from the sea is used to regulate the temperature inside the building, and to refill the surrounding reflecting pools.[23][24] The Guardian described it as "an other-worldly edifice that looks like a cross between a solar-powered dinosaur and a giant air conditioning unit", and declared "it must already rank as one of the world's most extraordinary buildings."[25]

Calatrava designed the WTC Transportation Hub in New York City at the rebuilt World Trade Center at the site of the September 11 attacks in 2001. The new station connects the regional trains of the new PATH with the subway and other local transportation, and also has a large retail mall, replacing commercial space destroyed in the attack. The above-ground "oculus" of the station, made of glass and steel, is oval-shaped, and is 35 metres (115 ft) long and 29 metres (95 ft) high. According to Calatrava, it resembles "a bird flying from the hands of a child".[26] The "Wings" of the above-ground structure were originally designed to move upward to a maximum height of 51 metres (167 ft) to form a double screen 51 metres (167 ft) high, but this feature had to be dropped to meet new security standards. The main hall of the station is 10 metres (33 ft) underground, and the tracks of the PATH system on another level 8 metres (26 ft) below. The underground station was originally designed so that its roof would open entirely in good weather, but this feature also had to be dropped due to its cost and space limitations.[26]

The WTC Hub has been controversial because of its cost (4 billion dollars, twice the original estimate, and the most expensive railway station ever built) and its delays (seven years on 3 March 2016, seven years behind schedule). More than $1 billion of its cost went to administrative expenses and the decision to build around the 1 train of the New York City Subway.[27][28] Michael Kimmelman, the architecture critic of the New York Times, praised the soaring upward view inside the Oculus, but condemned the building's cost, "scale, monotony of materials and color, preening formalism and disregard for the gritty urban fabric."[29]

Much of the criticism focused on Calatrava's WTC Hub, which was completed in 2016 for a cost of $4 billion, twice what was expected and seven years behind schedule. Calatrava was paid a fee of 80 million dollars.[33] Some of the additional cost and delay was due to additions and modifications to the original plan by the project owners, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, rather than the architect. Calatrava's original entry pavilion was scaled back for security reasons[34] and the mechanism for opening the roof to the gallery below was eliminated because of budget and space restraints.[35]

Even before it opened the station was a target of criticism: the New York Post described the station in 2014 as it was being built as "a self-indulgent monstrosity" and "a hideous waste of public money". Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for The New York Times, referred to the structure as "a kitsch stegosaurus".[36] New York magazine referred to it in 2015 as it neared completion as a "Glorious Boondoggle".[37] The New York Post editorial board also described the station when it opened in 2016 as the "world's most obscenely overpriced commuter rail station – and possibly its ugliest", comparing the Oculus to a "giant gray-white space insect".[38]

The Hub also had its defenders. Jimmy Stamp of The Guardian wrote: "I despised the new World Trade Center transportation hub before I even saw it. It’s $2bn over budget, has suffered from construction problems and design compromises, it’s seven years late and still incomplete, and its architect, Santiago Calatrava, has left a trail of lawsuits and angry clients around the world....But when I was standing on the marble floors in its enormous, gleaming central concourse two stories below street level, staring up at a clear blue sky between bone-white ribs vaulting 160ft over my head, I, like Jonah in the whale, repented – at least for the moment....We deserve grand expressions of our artistic and technological capabilities. We deserve public spaces that inspire. The Oculus is deeply flawed, but I appreciate its aspiration and grandeur.... The Oculus presents a more optimistic vision, one based less on present realities and more on future possibilities. Less Blade Runner, more Star Trek. By the time we get to that future, whichever one it may be, the delays and the cost and the controversies will be forgotten, but we will be left with a luminous great hall in the heart of downtown New York."[39]

Athens Olympic Sports Complex

On October 2023 the Greek government decided to shut down the Athens Olympic Stadium and Velodrome, which both have a roof built by Calatrava, due to stability issues posing a threat for attendees and workers.[40]

• 1983–84, Jakem Steel Warehouse, Munchwilen, Switzerland
• 1983–85, Ernsting Warehouse, Coesfeld, Germany
• 1983–88, Wohlen High School, Wohlen, Switzerland
• 1983–90, Stadelhofen Railway Station, Zürich, Switzerland
• 1983–89, Hall of Lucerne railway station, Lucerne, Switzerland
• 1984–87, Bac de Roda Bridge, Barcelona, Spain
• 1984–88, Barenmatte Community Center, Suhr, Switzerland
• 1986–87, Tabourettli Theater, Basel, Switzerland
• 1986–88, 9 De Octubre Bridge, Valencia, Spain
• 1987–92, Allen Lambert Galleria (in Brookfield Place), Toronto, Ontario, Canada,
• 1987–96, Buchen Housing Estate, Würenlingen, Switzerland
• 1989–98, Emergency Services Centre, St. Gallen, Switzerland
• 1989–94, Lyon-Saint-Exupéry TGV Station, Lyon, France
• 1989–91, La Devesa Footbridge, Ripoll, Spain
• 1989–95, Puerto Bridge, Ondarroa, Spain
• 1989–96, Bohl Bus and Tram stop, St. Gallen, Switzerland
• 1991–95, Alameda Bridge and Metro Station, Valencia, Spain
• 1991–96, Oberbaum Bridge Renovation, Berlin, Germany
• 1992, Alamillo Bridge, Seville, Spain
• 1992, Lusitania Bridge, Mérida, Spain
• 1992, Montjuic Communications Tower at the Olympic Ring, Barcelona, Spain
• 1992, World's Fair, Kuwaiti Pavilion, Seville, Spain
• 1994, Mimico Creek Bridge, Humber Bay Park, Toronto, Ontario
• 1994, Kronprinzenbrücke, Berlin, Germany
• 1994–97, Campo Volantin Footbridge, Bilbao, Spain
• 1992–95, Llonja de Sant Jordi, Alcoy (Alicante), Spain
• 1995, Trinity Bridge, footbridge over River Irwell in Manchester and Salford, Greater Manchester, England
• 1996–2009, City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia, Spain
• 1996, Centro Internacional de Ferias y Congresos de Tenerife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife, Canary island, Spain
• 1996–2000, Pont de l'Europe, Orléans, France
• 1997, Pfalzkeller Gallery, St. Gallen, Switzerland
• 1998, Gare do Oriente, Lisbon, Portugal
• 1999, New York Times Capsule, U.S.A.
• 1999, Puente del Hospital, Murcia, Spain
• 2000, New terminal at Bilbao Airport, Bilbao, Spain
• 2001, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US
• 2001, Puente de la Mujer, in the Puerto Madero barrio of Buenos Aires, Argentina
• 2001, Bodegas Ysios, Laguardia, Spain
• 2002, Wave, in Dallas, Texas at the Southern Methodist University Meadows Museum[55]
• 2003, James Joyce Bridge, bridge over River Liffey, Dublin, Ireland
• 2003, Auditorio de Tenerife, the architect's first performing arts facility, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
• 2004, redesign of Athens Olympic Sports Complex, Athens, Greece
• 2004, Katehaki Footbridge, Athens, Greece
• 2004, Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay, Redding, California, US
• 2004, Three bridges (called Harp, Cittern and Lute) spanning the main canal of the Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands
• 2004, University of Zurich, "Bibliothekseinbau" library remodelling, Zürich, Switzerland
• 2005, The bridge connecting the Avnat shopping mall and the Rabin Medical Center (Beilinson) in Petah Tikva, Israel
• 2005, Turning Torso, Malmö, Sweden
• 2007, Three bridges on the A1 Motorway and Milan–Bologna high-speed railway, Reggio Emilia, Italy
• 2008, Chords Bridge at the entrance to Jerusalem, a light rail bridge, Israel
• 2008, Ponte della Costituzione footbridge from Piazzale Roma over the Grand Canal, Venice, Italy
• 2008–2009, Technion Obelisk, monument on the Technion campus in Haifa, Israel
• 2009, Liège-Guillemins railway station in Liège, Belgium
• 2009, Samuel Beckett Bridge, bridge over River Liffey, Dublin, Ireland
• 2009, Caja Madrid Obelisk, Madrid, Spain
• 2011, Palacio de Congresos de Oviedo, Oviedo, Asturias, Spain, [Spanish wiki: es:Palacio de Congresos de Oviedo]
• 2011, Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos, Oviedo, Spain
• 2012, Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, Dallas, Texas, US
• 2012, Peace Bridge, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
• 2013, Medio Padana Station on the Milan–Bologna high-speed railway, Reggio Emilia, Italy
• 2014, Florida Polytechnic University, Lakeland, Florida, US
• 2015, Museu do Amanhã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• 2016, World Trade Center Transportation Hub, New York City
• 2018, Crati River Bridge, Cosenza, Italy
• 2021, Margaret McDermott Bridge, Dallas, Texas, U.S.
• 2021, UAE Pavilion at EXPO 2020, Dubai, UAE
• 2022, St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, New York City

In Europe

• City of Sport, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy
• New railway station in Mons, Belgium
• Peninsula Place, Greenwich, London (1 billion dollar project for three towers and a footbridge)[56]

In the Middle East

• Sharq Crossing, Doha, Qatar: project for three bridges and two tunnels (postponed until after 2022)
• Dubai Creek Tower, Dubai, UAE (ground broken, scheduled for completion in 2025; in competition for world's tallest structure)[57]

In East Asia

• Yuan Ze University Building (Taoyuan International Conference Center), Taoyuan, Taiwan.

• Chicago Spire, Chicago, Illinois, United States

• 2011: On 10 December, Calatrava was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture for a five-year renewable term by Pope Benedict XVI.[66]
• 2004: Calatrava received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Quincy Jones during the International Achievement Summit in Chicago.[67][68]
• 2004: James Parks Morton Interfaith Award