Listening to Santiago Calatrava
Listening to Santiago Calatrava
I was glad to go back to the 92nd Street Y’s Design Legends series and attend the talk by Santiago Calatrava interviewed by Paul Goldberger . Read his very good article in the New Yorker
Santiago Calatrava enthusiastically presented his work starting from his studies of the human body in drawings and sculptures to his architectural and engineering achievements: towers like turning torsos, train stations and hubs with opening roofs, bridges that extend into the skies like arms and theaters that reflect into the water.
Most of his work consists of building infrastructure therefore they are very long term projects and many things can happen along the way: major crisis, changes etc. Therefore he reminded me that one needs to strongly believe in its profession to stay in it and make things happen.
I like a lot his sculptures shown at the Met, and his furniture I have seen like this anthropomorphic table.
Calatrava recently re-settled in New York and worked on set designs for the New York City Ballet. The auditorium at the Y was full and people were excited about his upcoming work in New York and especially at Ground Zero. It felt that the era of heroic works had come back to the city.
