Exclusive Q&A with Calgary "Peace Bridge" designer Santiago Calatrava
July 29, 2009 12:44 PM
When he last visited Calgary in May, architect Santiago Calatrava agreed to an interview with the Herald's Jason Markusoff, on the condition it not be released until his design was made public.
Herald: Other bridges you have designed look very different from this one. How did your past experience designing bridges contribute to your design of this one?
Santiago Calatrava: I’m more inclined to say it’s a unique bridge. I have never done a bridge like that, even in the use of colours. You see, mostly my bridges are all white and this has, I call it, Canadian red. I have to say it has been an opportunity of renewal. Also I have to say that the first impressions I got about the bridge arriving here was that a lot of people – in a very inhospitable day – were jogging around. And I thought for those people, and in order to blend the communication of the north side with the south side of the river bank you need a bridge that invites you to go through, even with the speed of the wind and the speed of the snowy weather. This brought me to put some functional criteria up front – covering the bridge. So it’s important that this has also a very strong human character. You understand, you could do a bridge that is almost like an adventure to cross it, like a trekking trail, or something like that, or you can do a suspended bridge that even moves a little or whatever. But I wanted to do a very human bridge. A bridge that invited the people of one side to go into the other, and vice versa. Not only people who are jogging and so, but also regular citizens that take their bicycle and go for a tour in Prince’s Island or downtown. You see a mother with a child who push the small caddy. I wanted to do a very human bridge. I think that whent he bridge was explained to me, was explained as a connection between one part of the city into another one, in which many people will go to work also by using bicycles or whatever. And I thought it is necessary to do a very human bridge.
If you look at the cityscape at the one side, it’s all tall buildings. And many people form their apartment will be able to see the bridge at night. It doesn’t mean the bridge will not landmark the area. And it’s also on the other side by having the city so consolidated with those tall buildings behind, it’s very difficult as a landmark to compete with a mast, that will be maybe only 16 metres high, when the buildings around are 100 metres. So sometimes those tall elements are good when they are in shallow environments because they really landmark the place... But what is the real landmark in this park is the whole front of the city, which keeps growing. So I thought by doing a horizontal element, I may even distinguish it more. You could imagine the bridge standing up, and it would be a good skyscraper. But this is a horizontal landmark.
Herald: Does this bridge mark a new phase in your bridge-building? It in some ways looks like the last one you built over Venice’s canal. That one was even red, like this one.
S.C.: No no, the colour of the bridge in Venice is Rosso Veniziano – it’s almost a brownish red. And the red we are trying to use here is very close to the red you can see in the leaves here sometimes, or in the Canadian flag. To do a very clear red and white configuration. You see, I came here on a very cold winter day. All for me was white around. I thought, if I do a white bridge in this place, it’s not the type of contrast I would like to have in the different seasonal colours. The (promotional) video pretends to be from the fall to the winter to the spring to the summer, and the red is recognizable in all those situations. So this is what made me choose the colour. However, you know the interior of the bridge is white. I wanted to do something more appealing and add to the river’s sense of cleanness. Even the stones in the paving, we would like to have it very light, maybe in a grey or a beige colour.
Herald: Jadwiga Kroman, the project manager, told me a charming story of how when you visited that first time at Teatro, the restaurant, you wound up sketching on a napkin that very same design. Was that same idea what we see in the renderings, or has it changed?
S.C.: I have to say the sketches of the bridge were formed during the Christmastime. Ms. Kroman got for me a book with sketches, over 180 or 200 sketches, done by hand, showing steps toward the elliptical section. It was providential, the visit to Calgary, because I understood very much about the beauty of the place, as well I saw photos of Calgary you know with the Rockies behind, and I also know well other cities like Denver at the feet of the mountains. So respect for nature was one issue, minimalizing the environmental impact was another issue, and the other was to build a very comfortable bridge, a very human bridge. It’s different when you do a bridge going to Prince’s Island, because it is a recreation park. But when you do a bridge between one part of the city and another, like we wanted do here, you have to do this very attractive, very functional, very accessible, and people have to us that in an easy way.
For me, it’s a highlight, beause i have never done a bridge like that. Of the 14 bridges I have built, there’s not one that follows this principle, not one that is done with this purity. And technically it is a demanding bridge. It’s a highly technical bridge.
Herald: With that in mind, is this an architect’s bridge or an engineer’s bridge?
S.C.: You know that until the early 19th century there was no difference. There is a fellow called Pironay who has built many bridges. He was an architect and he was founder of Ecole Polytechnique, in the Napoleonic time, and this Pironay was the founder of the school from which started calling engineers instead of architects. in principle, there is not a difference. I think it is a bridge that is engineering-wise enormously challenging, and technically in my eyes it’s an achievement, it’s a very modern bridge. On the other hand it’s a bridge that tried to be very functional and very near and close to the people.
Herald: There’s disappointment from a lot of people in Calgary that there was an attempt to go beyond the functional, to bring you in, especially at this time where everyone is cutting back. I know you’ve experienced that your Chicago (condo) project, that that’s a victim of a recession. How do you feel about this as a time to build bridges of extravagance, of beauty?
S.C.: To build things with beauty, is a matter of dignity and not a matter of time. If you go to certain places where people have been living in the mediterranean areas before the tourists arrived. Yu could arrive into those Greek villages in the islands. It was those pristine white houses and these beautiful villages. People were living with very little resources. But it was clean, and it was pristine, and it was apulchritude. So i don’t think recession or not recession, the sensibility towards beauty is for all seasons.
At the other side, beauty and function are not fighting with each other. A bridge has to be functional, and we are here giving a lot of importance to the functionality, beause i think i wanted to do a bridge that was appealing that people use with pleasure and that it really serves the people directly.
And then the third thing is that remember, I am living in New York. I think the greatest achievements in new york is the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the Rockefeller Center, the geroge washington bridge. those were all built in the great depression. The people should understand that difficult times is the time of renewal. It is the time to get in front of the challenges with a lot of courage and openness. And I think those buildings remain as witness of the people’s attitude of hope for the future. Because everybody knows today in the globe and mail there was an article that the American banking system is already showing signs that we are over the recession. One day or another this crisis will be finished and we will show ourselves to the future generations as courageous people, living in their future, not only in our future. I mean, in New York you have those great buildings, the greatest in the city, built in the most beautiful time.
Herald: As I walk along the river bank, where this bridge is going to be, people I ask say this is the epitome of terrible decisions. This was a bad use of taxpayer’s money. Why should we be hiring this fellow from Spain to build this bridge? What do you make of this criticism?
S.C.: First of all, I am not so un-Canadian as I may appear. Because canada in my opinion is composed of many people from all over the world, among others from Spain. Spaniard are not foreigners in Calgary. Thanks to your sense of hospitality and welcoming you are a community that has demonstrated throughout the 20th century that you can build up a great country, taking in people willing to come here to work, and willing to come here to do the best, residents or non-residents. This has impressed me so much that I sent three of my boys to study in Canada. At the time I was building the BCE plaza (in Toronto). I thought that’s a good place to educate my children. So they’ve been in Lakefield College School all three of them. I’m very familiar with the country with the nature and the character of the people here. So I don’t consider myself 100 per cent a foreigner here, although I don’t live in Canada, I live in New York. Everybody coming here whether they are coming from India or coming from Japan or coming from China -- wherever they come -- I am sure we are inspired by a spirit to give our very best. Indeed I am very proud to have done for Calgary a very unique bridge. It is a bridge as I have never done, a bridge that will be built within budget and on time. I am also putting my know-how and 28 years of professionalism, projecting a bridge and doing that with a local firm, Stantec, who is my local partner here.
Herald: What does it say about a city that they select you as the designer. Everybody when they were talking about the bridge, especially in City Hall, were talking about an iconic bridge by an iconic designer. Atlanta has also pursued you for this city. Dallas has. Other cities have. What does it say about a city that they seek Santiago Calatrava to design for them a bridge or a building?
S.C.: Everybody who is working in this circumstance has to try in a very short period of time to not only hear the people around you, but also see and feel to get the spirit of the place. What fascinates me about the city is it is so you are such a young city. It is 115 years old, and compared to European cities it is a very very young. Whatever you do, if it has a certain character, is enormously appreciated by the people. Because I have experienced in other cities where I have built, in Milwaukee and in Toronto, you feel an enormous proudness, because people appreciate those things, particularly young people.
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The proof reading on this article sucks, including the headline if you check out the link! Spelling mistakes and errors galore!
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PS: Obama got elected because nearly the entire world now loathes Bush, even some of his most ardent supporters before. *I* could have gotten elected on the Democrat ticket last year.
Calgary Herald Q&A with Calatrava
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