The eighties were coming to an end when the President of the Generalitat Valenciana came up with the thought, after visiting Paris, that it would be a good idea to build in the capital what would end up being the City of Arts and Sciences. A mammoth project so ambitious which almost bordered madness and that was commissioned to a local architect: Santiago Calatrava.
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The eighties were coming to an end when the President of the Generalitat Valenciana came up with the thought, after visiting Paris, that it would be a good idea to build in the capital what would end up being the City of Arts and Sciences. A mammoth project so ambitious which almost bordered madness and that was commissioned to a local architect: Santiago Calatrava.
The site chosen was the old Turia riverbed, and in 1998 the Hemisfèric was opened there, which with its spectacular appearance of an enormous eye and its sophisticated interior screen was the first building in the complex. In the following years, the others would sprout, and the place began to resemble one of those scenarios of a film based in the future, all it needs is to launch spaceships.
Here today we have the unusual arrangement of L’Umbracle and the Principe Felipe Museum, with its whale skeleton appearance and its interactive scientific exhibitions. Also pay attention to the Oceanográfico, which houses the world’s main marine ecosystems, and it is the largest aquarium of its kind in Europe. And to top it off, all of this is joined by the Puente de l’asset de l’Or and the Palacio de las Artes Reina Sofia, designed for performances of opera and stage arts. And L’Ágora, another amazing and versatile building in which you can either see a fashion show, a tennis match or a concert.
In the end, they achieved a place of imposing visual power to which, according to projections, four mega-skyscrapers had to be added, which later became three, and ended up being zero. Because, and here comes the other side of the story, the fortune spent on the Calatrava project was four times higher than the one that appeared in the initial budget, and things were no longer so joyful.
Also, some of the buildings began to give problems much earlier than expected, and it was because of this kind of a mess, the architect Calatrava went from being claimed by the main cities of the planet to be involved in polemics day in and day out. But surely the politicians who promoted the project with their ideas of politicians achieved what they were looking for: a symbolic space for Valencia, full of structures and constructions to which, without a doubt, it is not possible to remain indifferent.
