As a builder fascinated by the beauty of the universe, I finish by emphasizing that which should be never be forgotten: What we build in the present is a legacy for future generations.
- Santiago Calatrava
As one of the biggest names in contemporary architecture, engineer-cum-architect Santiago Calatrava is internationally famous for the conception and masterful execution of structures akin to high art. Taking inspiration from nature, his work mimics the shapes and motions of organic entities, as can be witnessed in the Turning Torso skyscraper in Sweden, the Milwaukee Art Museum in Wisconsin, and the recently completed World Trade Center Transportation Hub in downtown Manhattan. This elegant and graceful structure, derived from some of Calatrava’s work as a painter and sculptor, is likened to a bird taking flight, a phoenix rising from the ashes of 9/11. With original texts from the man behind the Oculus, legendary New Yorker architectural critic Paul Goldberger, and George Deodatis, Columbia University’s department chair of Civil Engineering, Calatrava: Oculus New York is the authority on the already-iconic building, sure to be canonized as one of the most beautiful public buildings of the twenty-first century.
