Santiago Calatrava

Location: This is a horribly anxious time to be in New York real estate, especially if you’re one of the city’s biggest builders. What keeps you up at night?

Mr. Sciame: I like to say that I sleep like a baby: I sleep for two hours and I cry for two hours. Only kidding. … Any major builder in this town in 2008 is having a very good year. And we’re having a very good year.

How is that possible? It’s been incredibly unsteady; apartments are going unsold.

It has been, but as the builder, we are building that building, and the apartments that you’re trying to sell have been paid for … which is why my year has been good.  read more »

"I don't believe this! Other countries would build somithing like this if they experienced a massive terrorist attack.I think that it is a disgrace that the port authority wants to simplify this hub because it costs too much money.This would truly be a beautiful hub if it was built. How could the Port Authority become so lazy with the WTC site? That site should be the center of America's attention right now!!! First the site was set for completion in 2010, then 2011, then 2012 and now 2013!!! Honestly, we should have had something up by 2003 to 2004,and now they want to simplify this hub because of money? This would truly be a remarkable hub,and I have been saying that since I saw it's design in 2006. I think that New York and America really deserves this. I hope that they don't change it's design." ["Agreement Near on Modestly Simplified Calatrava WTC Hub"]

With a report due in just one week that sets new timetables for the World Trade Center redevelopment, a decision is near on one of the most complex--and controversial--elements at the site, the multibillion dollar PATH hub.

The Santiago Calatrava-designed station has been a massive headache for officials and engineers since at least early 2007, when it became clear that the design was too costly given its $2.1 billion budget and could delay multiple other elements, including the memorial, at the interconnected site given the central placement of the station. In recent months, as the Port Authority has sought to bring in new timetables, a decision on what to do with the PATH station has been at the center of discussion.  read more »

From the latest New Yorker's profile of architect Santiago Calatrava, by Rebecca Mead:

For Calatrava, who is one of the world’s most successful architects, sketching with watercolors is an essential part of his creative process. He does not work with a computer or with drafting equipment; each of his buildings begins with a sheaf of paint-dappled pages. His archive in Switzerland includes more than a hundred thousand sketches; he has also had copies of them bound into handsome keepsake books for his clients, a beguilingly artisanal alternative to a PowerPoint presentation.

Mr. Calatrava, of course, is designing the planned World Trade Center transit hub (rendered above), which may or may not be scaled back.

Governor's Skyway

Working pro bono, Santiago Calatrava came up with drawings for a gondola that would connect Lower Manhattan with Governor's Island--with considerable help we imagine, from STV Inc. and Leitner-Poma of America. The sketches put a little glamour in the rather technical announcement by Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg this morning that the agency overseeing the island had issued a request for proposals.  read more »