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Spanish architect Calatrava wins lawsuit over a degrading website

SpainHouses.netJune 4, 2014March 31, 2020Leave a comment

A judge in Valencia has ordered a political party to pay €30,000 (£24,400) in damages to the celebrated architect Santiago Calatrava over a website its members created to highlight the flaws and cost overruns in various projects he designed.

Calatrava took the Valencia branch of the leftwing party Esquerra Unida to court, demanding €600,000 in compensation over their website 'Calatravatelaclava', which loosely translates as "Calatrava bleeds you dry."

The party founded the site in 2012 to take aim at the City of Arts and Sciences, an ambitious project meant to put Valencia on the map as a tourist destination. It said that from an original budget of €300m, the cost of the dazzling complex – which includes a concert hall, opera house, planetarium and science museum among its many features – swelled to more than €1bn by the time it was completed in 2005.

Calatrava, a native of Valencia, billed the government nearly €100m for the project, it added.
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Calatrava’s Opera House in Valencia and its Façade Problem

SpainHouses.netJanuary 29, 2014October 7, 2019Leave a comment

The performing arts center and opera house of Valencia was designed by the prominent architect Santiago Calatrava, who also created New York's World Trade Center Transportation Hub, scheduled to open in 2015, as well as many other international projects. His work is known for its airy, curved designs that suggest a symbiosis between architecture and sculpture. It has also proven controversial in recent years because of ballooning budgets and technical glitches.

The Palau, which cost 478 million euros to build, opened eight years ago. A recent analysis by the Construction Technology Institute (Aidico) concluded that there is a "generalized failure of the ceramic covering's adherence" on 60 percent of the surface. The Valencian government commissioned this report after a section of the mosaic fell off on December 26, forcing the opera house to shut down and cancel performances.
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Alameda bridge in Valencia, Spain

SpainHouses.netSeptember 8, 2012March 31, 2020Leave a comment

The Alameda bridge or Puente de Calatrava is built over the Turia river bed.

As the bridge resembles a comb, it has been popularly nicknamed the "Peineta", the Spanish for decorative combs.

From the transit track it takes an inclined arc of 14 meters, which contributes to the stability of the bridge, which is 26 meters width and 131 meters in length.

Underneath the bridge you'll find the underground station. The steel canopies that mark the entrances to the underground station can be lowered by hydraulically driven rods, to rest flush with the pavers, thus sealing the station. The station is a centrally located stop for trains which connect different districts of Valencia.

Source: SpainHouses.net

Zubizuri Bridge in Bilbao by Santiago Calatrava 1

SpainHouses.netApril 17, 2012August 5, 20191 Comment

Bilbao is home for one the great architectural works of Santiago Calatrava

This graceful curving glass-decked footbridge, called as "Puente del Campo Volantin" or "Zubizuri", is one of the greatest designs of Santiago Calatrava. A short walk along the river from the Guggenheim Bilbao by Frank Gehry.

"As in many other designs by Santiago Calatrava, an apparent disequilibrium or rather a sense of frozen movement is heightened by the lightness of the structure".- said Philip Jodidio.

Calatrava's early career was largely dedicated to bridges and train stations, with designs that elevated the status of civil engineering projects to new heights. His Montjuic Communications Tower in Barcelona in the heart of the 1992 Olympics site, as well as the Allen Lambert Galleria in Toronto, Canada, were important works and turning points in his career, leading to a wide range of commissions.

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