The Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava is famous all over the world for his dynamic and majestic style at the same time, for the daring projects related to engineering (bridges, above all), and for works like the Art Museum of Milwuakee, James Joyce Bridge in Dublin, the High Speed train station and the highway bridge in Reggio Emilia. But an article in the Herald Tribune, the international version of the New York Times, tells the controversy and problems about some of his Spanish constructions, polemics and problems that Italians are familiar with because of the issues around his pedestrian bridge at the Venice station.
In Valencia, Spain, where he was born 58 years ago, Calatrava built - with a budget of 300 million euros - the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències (the City of Arts and Sciences): a mammoth complex on a surface of 350 thousand square meters, which includes within it a planetarium, a conference room, a bridge, an opera house, a science museum and which is his biggest work to date.



The Autonomous Community of Valencia had commissioned the work in 1996, hoping that it would become a symbol of the city able to attract tourists, like the Guggenheim museum designed by the Canadian Frank Gehry in Bilbao. During its construction, which lasted 21 years, the initial budget has tripled, creating a debt of over 700 million euros to the Community that it is unable to pay. Ignacio Blanco, member of the Parliament of the Autonomous Community, has opened the site "Calatrava Te la Clava" (a play on words that can be translated with "Calatrava disslaps you") in which he tells the background of the construction of the complex and provides data about it . The homepage of the site reads: «Santiago Calatrava. Ruinous projects and invoices without VAT ». The complaints are not only about the unexpected costs, but also some mistakes made in the design phase, such as the 150 seats of the Opera House from which you would not see the stage and the lack of emergency exits and lifts for disabled people interior of the Science Museum.

Blanco also accuses Calatrava of having been charged to
even for the time spent to remedy the mistakes he himself made and denounces that, just six years after the opening, the opera house - dubbed by some the Darth Vader helmet, because of the form - would already be showing first signs of wear.



Calatrava defended himself by saying that "it was a privilege to work on these projects, each of which conforms to the highest standards". In an interview with architectural magazine Architectural Record, he defined the controversy "a political move by the Communists" (Blanco is part of a leftist opposition party) and said that the extra costs served to pay 20 years of works and some interventions not foreseen on the construction site.
It is not the first time that Calatrava considerably exceeds the initial budget, which is why it currently has three ongoing lawsuits with some of its past clients.

The city of Venice, for which in 2008 built the Bridge of the Constitution, which connects Piazzale Roma to the station of Venice Santa Lucia, has requested a compensation of 3.8 million euros for costs significantly higher than those declared during the race for the high repair and maintenance costs incurred so far. Even the owner of a cellar he built in the Spanish region of Alava, in the Basque Country, has asked two million euros to pay someone to rebuild the roof, from which water enters from the construction and that the architect would not be able to repair. The last case concerns the city of Oviedo, also in Spain, where a conference hall designed by him suffered a serious collapse.
Even Haarlemmermeer, a city near Amsterdam for which Calatrava has designed three bridges, has threatened to sue him for doubling the budget and for the millions already spent in maintenance since its opening in 2004.
Other controversies still concern the city of Bilbao, where Calatrava designed a glass bridge: its surface is smooth and transparent, and can be illuminated from below, a choice that has made it possible to eliminate street lamps and maintain a very essential line. But Bilbao is a very rainy city, and since the inauguration - which took place in 1997 - 50 people have asked for compensation from the city for hurting themselves on the bridge. In order to meet these expenses, the Municipality (which Calatrava had denounced, losing, due to the choice of supporting a new project by the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki) two years ago decided to cover the surface with a non-aesthetic anti-slip mat in black rubber.



Mayor Iñaki Azkuna said: "We know that it loses its beauty, but we can not afford to keep paying people who are hurt."
Also in Bilbao, Calatrava built an airport called "La Paloma" (which in Spanish means "the dove") because of its shape that recalls a dove that stands out, but the final project did not provide a waiting room for the passengers and the city had to make up for their absence at their own expense.



The most ambitious project of Calatrava, the "Spire" skyscraper in Chicago that should have reached 610 meters in height, has instead had other vicissitudes and the building site has been suspended due to the financial problems of the property.
"Other architects know exactly what handles they want for the doors, where to buy them and at what price," said the protester Blanco in a recent interview. "But Calatrava is exactly the opposite: he does not have this degree of precision. If you look at the projects of the other architects are very extensive, its have a few pages ».