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Legal Troubles Dog Famed Spanish Architect Santiago Calatrava

United Kingdom Architecture News - Sep 15, 2014 - 10:59   1713 views

Legal Troubles Dog Famed Spanish Architect Santiago Calatrava

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A Spanish court named Calatrava, designer of New York's Ground Zero transport hub, a suspect in alleged contract fraud. Prosecutors say he got $3.6 million for a convention center that wasn't built.

Don Gonyea, Host:

Spain's most famous living architect is Santiago Calatrava. He's designed dozens of buildings in his native country as well as the Milwaukee Art Museum in Florida Polytechnic University. Now he's at work in the new transit station at the World Trade Center in New York, but that project is massively over budget and behind schedule and it's highlighted some of Calatrava's legal troubles back in Spain. Lauren Frayer reports.

Lauren Frayer, Byline: I'm standing in front of Valencia's soaring, white modern opera house. I'd hope to see Placido Domingo sing here, but instead scaffolding blocks the entrance and workers are scraping off the building's facade after its tiles started falling off. Valencia's Opera House is among dozens of Spanish buildings designed by Santiago Calatrava. His popularity soared during Spain's construction boom and then took a nosedive with Spain's economy. Calatrava coated his opera house with what many here now call an impractical material - tiny mosaic tiles that started wrinkling and crumbling after just a few years.....Continue Reading

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