Architect-engineer-artist Santiago Calatrava, FAIA, whose soaring structural poetry in bridges and buildings has garnered international acclaim, was selected December 2 by the AIA Board of Directors to receive the 2005 AIA Gold Medal. The highest honor the Institute confers to an individual, the Gold Medal recognizes an individual whose significant body of work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture. Calatrava will be presented with the medal at the 2005 American Architectural Foundation Accent on Architecture Gala, February 11, 2005, at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

“Wonderful, thank you! I feel very honored,” Calatrava said, upon learning the news of his award via a telephone call to Zurich from AIA President Eugene C. Hopkins, FAIA, and the rest of the AIA Board. “I will try to stay at this level of honor for the rest of my career to honor you with my work.”

Elegance of simplicity
The elemental and lyrical forms of Calatrava’s architecture, known and loved across the globe, most recently have manifested in his cathedral-like design for the World Trade Center’s transportation hub, the $2 billion open-air design linking the ferries, trains, commuter trains, and subway lines that converge at the World Trade Center site. Also this year, millions enjoyed the harmony created at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens thanks to Calatrava’s master plan, as well as his spectacular designs for the Olympic Stadium, the Agora, and the Nation’s Wall.

Among Calatrava’s other most notable recent works are: the expansion of the Milwaukee Art Museum (2001), his first building in the U.S.; Sondica Airport, Bilbao (2000); James Joyce Bridge, Dublin (2003); and the Auditorio de Tenerife, Santa Cruz, Canary Islands (2003). Nearing completion are the Petach Tikvah Bridge, Tel Aviv; Quarto Ponte sul Grand Canale, Venice; the Turtle Bay Bridge, Redding, Calif.; and the Palacio de las Artes, the last building for Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences. Calatrava’s firm also is currently designing Atlanta’s Symphony Center.

In nominating him for the award, 2004 Committee Chair J. Windom Kimsey, FAIA, and 2002 AIA Vice President Edward J. Kodet, FAIA—on behalf of the AIA Committee on Design—wrote, “Santiago Calatrava exemplifies sculptural expression and engineering through architecture . . . Calatrava’s work is like music: well orchestrated. It is architecture that delights and finds new meaning each time it is experienced.” The committee also noted, “Santiago Calatrava’s work seeks out the essence of architecture. His architecture expands the vision and expresses the energy of the human spirit, captivating the imagination and delighting us in the wonders of what sculptural form and dynamic structure can accomplish. Santiago Calatrava defines the reason for the Gold Medal. His vision elevates the human spirit through the creation of environments in which we live, play, and work.”

Building bridges
A native of Valencia, Spain, Calatrava, whose heritage extends back to a medieval order of knights, began his formal instruction in the arts at the age of eight. He was a teenager when Spain’s dictatorship relaxed its travel restrictions, allowing him to study in Paris and Switzerland as an exchange student. He earned his degree in architecture from the Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura in Valencia and a PhD in engineering from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. Calatrava established his first office in Zurich and soon after gained acclaim as a bridge designer, beginning with the commission of the Bach de Roda Bridge for the 1984 Olympic Games in Barcelona. Among his other feats of bridge engineering and beauty are the Alamillo Bridge for the World’s Fair in Seville (1992), the Campo Volantin Footbridge in Bilbao (1997), and the Alameda Bridge and subway station in Valencia (1995).

Establishment of the firm’s second office in Paris in 1989 coincided with the design of the Lyon Airport Station, which was completed in 1994. Concurrently the firm worked on the acclaimed BCE Place Hall in Toronto. A third office in Valencia followed in 1991 with work on the City of Arts and Sciences, a very large cultural complex, which continues to this day.

A resonance with the public and designers alike
Among his myriad awards Calatrava counts the Gold Medal of the Institute of Structural Engineers, London; the City of Toronto Urban Design Award, Toronto; the Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts, Ministry of Culture, Spain; Time magazine’s “Best of 2001” designation for the Milwaukee Art Museum expansion; the Sir Misha Black Medal, Royal College of Art, London; the Leonardo da Vinci Medal, Florence; the Gold Medal of Architecture of L’Academie d’Architecture, Paris; the European Steel Design Award for the University of Zurich roof, Lucerne, Switzerland; the Silver Beam Award of the Swedish Institute of Steel Construction, Gotherburg, Sweden; the Illuminating Design Award of Merit of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, New York; and 13 honorary doctorates.

Calatrava has captured the hearts and imagination of the public and his clients as well as those of designers and engineers around the globe. Joseph J. Seymour, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, summed up the impact of Calatrava’s work when writing about the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, for which the Port Authority is the client. “In addition to being an inspiration in this country and around the world, Mr. Calatrava’s transportation facility will serve thousands of commuter and tourists each day, Seymour pointed out. “ . . . Mr. Calatrava captivated the New York – New Jersey region when he unveiled a soaring, spectacular design concept for the transportation hub, which will be one of the centerpieces for the redeveloped World Trade Center site. It is my firm belief that Mr. Calatrava’s 150-foot, glass-and-steel winged building will one day serve as an inspiring architectural icon for New York City, rivaling some of the city’s more famous transportation facilities, including Grand Central Station.”

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