Santiago Calatrava has won a victory over Esquerra Unida, a Spanish left-wing political party, in court, as a judge has ordered the party's Valencia branch to pay €30,000.
These damages are to be paid because of a website the party created, called "Calatravatelaclava," or "Calatrava bleeds you dry." The architect was asking for €600,000 in damages.
The site went up in 2012 and was meant to target the City of Arts and Sciences, a project that went from €300 million to over €1 billion during construction, according to The Guardian. The complex includes an opera house, a concert hall, a planetarium, and science museum, and was completed in 2005.
It has had multiple structural problems since its construction; in December, the concert hall was fenced off after high winds blew parts of the mosaic off the building. Calatravatelaclava was created to point out flaws in Calatrava's projects, but focused on the Valencia complex in particular.
Other buildings designed by Calatrava have also shown structural problems; for example, the Palacio de Congresos project in Oviedo, Spain.
The judge ruled that the actual information on the Calatravatelaclava site was true and not problematic, but that the name was "insulting and degrading."
The Guardian reports: "the judge said the name suggested that Calatrava 'does not act with the necessary professionalism and honour, but rather schemes, betrays and deceives.' The €30,000 would be 'symbolic reparations for the pain caused' by the site, which he ordered to be shut down within 20 days."
The original website has been taken down; however, another site, called "Calatrava no nos calla," or "Calatrava won't silence us" was launched by Esquerra Unida on Friday, May 16. Ignacio Blanco, has said that this is legal according to the terms of the sentence, and he says that the party will appeal the decision.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Biograph Theater
Located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, Victory Gardens Theater Company has welcomed up-and-coming playwrights for 33 years. In 2004, the company expanded its campus with the purchase of the Biograph Theater for its new main stage. Built in 1914, the theater was one of the city's oldest remaining neighborhood movie houses, and it was part of Chicago's gangster lore: in 1934, John Dillin...
| Aug 11, 2010
Top of the rock—Observation deck at Rockefeller Center
Opened in 1933, the observation deck at Rockefeller Center was designed to evoke the elegant promenades found on the period's luxury transatlantic liners—only with views of the city's skyline instead of the ocean. In 1986 this cultural landmark was closed to the public and sat unused for almost two decades.
| Aug 11, 2010
Putting the Metal to the Petal
The Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine was founded in 1985, but the organization didn't have a permanent home until May 2008. That's when the Michael Klahr Center, which houses the HHRC, opened on the Augusta campus of the University of Maine. The design, by Boston-based architects Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott, was selected from among more than 200 entries in a university-s...
| Aug 11, 2010
Jefferson Would Be Proud
The Virginia State Capitol Building—originally designed by Thomas Jefferson and almost as old as the nation itself—has proudly served as the oldest continuously used Capitol in the U.S. But more than two centuries of wear and tear put the historical landmark at the head of the line for restoration.
| Aug 11, 2010
Let There Be Daylight
The new public library in Champaign, Ill., is drawing 2,100 patrons a day, up from 1,600 in 2007. The 122,600-sf facility, which opened in January 2008, certainly benefits from amenities that the old 40,000-sf library didn't have—electronic check-in and check-out, new computers, an onsite coffeehouse.
| Aug 11, 2010
American Tobacco Project: Turning over a new leaf
As part of a major revitalization of downtown Durham, N.C., locally based Capitol Broadcasting Company decided to transform the American Tobacco Company's derelict 16-acre industrial plant, which symbolized the city for more than a century, into a lively and attractive mixed-use development. Although tearing down and rebuilding the property would have made more economic sense, the greater goal ...
| Aug 11, 2010
Bronze Award: Alumni Gymnasium Renovation, Dartmouth College Hanover, N.H.
At a time when institutions of higher learning are spending tens of millions of dollars erecting massive, cutting-edge recreation and fitness centers, Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., decided to take a more modest, historical approach. Instead of building an ultra-grand new facility, the university chose to breathe new life into its landmark Alumni Gymnasium by transforming the outdated 99-y...
| Aug 11, 2010
Fleet Library, Rhode Island School of Design
When tasked with transforming an early 1920s Italian Renaissance bank building into a fully functional library for the Rhode Island School of Design, the Building Team for RISD's Fleet Library found itself at odds with the project's two main goals. On the one hand, the team would have to carefully restore and preserve the historic charm and ornate architectural details of the landmark space, d...
| Aug 11, 2010
Gold Award: The Lion House, Bronx Zoo Bronx, N.Y.
Astor Court sits at the heart of the 265-acre Bronx Zoo, and its six Beaux Arts buildings were constructed at the turn of the 20th century to house exotic animals from around the world. When the Lion House was built in 1903, the brick and limestone facility was considered state-of-the-art, but as standards of animal care advanced, the lions were moved into a more natural setting, and the Lion H...
| Aug 11, 2010
The pride of Pasadena
As a shining symbol of civic pride in Los Angeles County, Pasadena City Hall stood as the stately centerpiece of Pasadena's Civic Center since 1927. To the casual observer, the rectangular edifice, designed by San Francisco Classicists John Bakewell, Jr., and Arthur Brown, Jr., appeared to be aging gracefully.
