I had it, I had writer's block for a full week. Had an assignment due and an article due. The person I enjoy writing for is on vacation. I absolutely couldn't put a coherent thought down on the page. The carrot of cash was dangled in front of me and still, I couldn't write.
That's it end of sad tale of woe is me. :)
I'm better now. :)
Monday, May 18, 2009
Santiago Calatrava Takes Flight In Milwaukee
Santiago Calatrava Takes Flight in Milwaukee
by Jeana Morgan, Apr 30, 2009
Just as the mention of opera brings Luciano Pavarotti to mind, the name Santiago Calatrava is inextricably intertwined with the mention of modern architecture.
Tourists from around the world and any resident of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the US is familiar with the Calatrava addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum located on the Lake Michigan shore. Most people love it, some ridicule it, but no one is indifferent to this magnificent structure.
It is an addition to the older, grayer Milwaukee Art Museum, and some say that it isn't a good match. It may not blend into the older building; it sets itself apart as a glowing white masterpiece reaching out and up. It scoops up the fluid lines of nature and gives wing to Calatrava’s expression of mother earth.
The original buildings known as the Milwaukee Art Museum were designed by architect Eero Saarinen in 1957. In 1994, the director of the Milwaukee Art Museum commissioned Calatrava to design the new addition. This was his first project in the U.S. The pristine whiteness of his creation is like a winged creation poised over the blue expanse of Lake Michigan. It enhances the shore and connects the lake to the city itself by way of the Reiman Bridge. This pedestrian bridge leads visitors from the downtown area consisting of hotels, restaurants and shopping to the shore and the entrance to the Calatrava addition.
The sheer beauty of the distinctive “fins” set on top of the addition have been called both wings and waves. Either term connects them to nature. Wings to the clouds or waves on the lake, they are a breathtaking vision to visitors.
But they extend beyond aesthetics; they are a movable construct made of 72 steel fins that can be adjusted to control temperature and light inside the entrance hall. The Brise Soleil is 217 feet wide and weighs 90 tons.
An architect will see the Brise Soleil as a masterpiece of form and function. An artist will be overwhelmed by its beauty. A small child might look up at his mother and ask, “Mommy, do you think it might fly away?”
Calatrava’s early career as a builder of bridges is evident in Spain, the rest of Europe and the world. Naturally, when plans were being made in 1999 to raise funds to build bridges spanning the Trinity River in Dallas, his name came up. He was awarded the design project in 2004, and a ground-breaking ceremony took place in 2005.
Now, four years later, we find that the necessary steel has been shipped in from Italy and is awaiting inspection procedures. This first bridge in a planned parcel of three will have a center arch with the equivalent height of a 40-story building. What a marvelous addition to the Dallas skyline it will be, whenever it is finished.
As of April 2009, it hasn't started so it won’t be finished by the projected July 2009 completion date. As Murphy’s Law says, stuff happens. In this case, the “stuff” was a lack of steel, plus safety concerns over sandy deposits on the river bottom into which construction crews planned to embed the pilings. The delay in building the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge seems advisable and necessary.
The completion date is expected to be sometime in 2011. Calatrava's “Bridge over Dallas Waters" will be a sight worth waiting to see.
by Jeana Morgan, Apr 30, 2009
Just as the mention of opera brings Luciano Pavarotti to mind, the name Santiago Calatrava is inextricably intertwined with the mention of modern architecture.
Tourists from around the world and any resident of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the US is familiar with the Calatrava addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum located on the Lake Michigan shore. Most people love it, some ridicule it, but no one is indifferent to this magnificent structure.
It is an addition to the older, grayer Milwaukee Art Museum, and some say that it isn't a good match. It may not blend into the older building; it sets itself apart as a glowing white masterpiece reaching out and up. It scoops up the fluid lines of nature and gives wing to Calatrava’s expression of mother earth.
The original buildings known as the Milwaukee Art Museum were designed by architect Eero Saarinen in 1957. In 1994, the director of the Milwaukee Art Museum commissioned Calatrava to design the new addition. This was his first project in the U.S. The pristine whiteness of his creation is like a winged creation poised over the blue expanse of Lake Michigan. It enhances the shore and connects the lake to the city itself by way of the Reiman Bridge. This pedestrian bridge leads visitors from the downtown area consisting of hotels, restaurants and shopping to the shore and the entrance to the Calatrava addition.
The sheer beauty of the distinctive “fins” set on top of the addition have been called both wings and waves. Either term connects them to nature. Wings to the clouds or waves on the lake, they are a breathtaking vision to visitors.
But they extend beyond aesthetics; they are a movable construct made of 72 steel fins that can be adjusted to control temperature and light inside the entrance hall. The Brise Soleil is 217 feet wide and weighs 90 tons.
An architect will see the Brise Soleil as a masterpiece of form and function. An artist will be overwhelmed by its beauty. A small child might look up at his mother and ask, “Mommy, do you think it might fly away?”
Calatrava’s early career as a builder of bridges is evident in Spain, the rest of Europe and the world. Naturally, when plans were being made in 1999 to raise funds to build bridges spanning the Trinity River in Dallas, his name came up. He was awarded the design project in 2004, and a ground-breaking ceremony took place in 2005.
Now, four years later, we find that the necessary steel has been shipped in from Italy and is awaiting inspection procedures. This first bridge in a planned parcel of three will have a center arch with the equivalent height of a 40-story building. What a marvelous addition to the Dallas skyline it will be, whenever it is finished.
As of April 2009, it hasn't started so it won’t be finished by the projected July 2009 completion date. As Murphy’s Law says, stuff happens. In this case, the “stuff” was a lack of steel, plus safety concerns over sandy deposits on the river bottom into which construction crews planned to embed the pilings. The delay in building the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge seems advisable and necessary.
The completion date is expected to be sometime in 2011. Calatrava's “Bridge over Dallas Waters" will be a sight worth waiting to see.
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