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Valencia, Spain
Out there in the shadow of the modern machine
In Valencia, a generous land of oranges a good two hours west of Barcelona, hometown boy Santiago Calatrava's ambitious City of Arts and Sciences continues to rise. The partially open complex has a bit of a Calatrava theme park feel to it, not necessarily a bad thing but certainly a lot of it. Calatrava should be fairly well known to regular slide show viewers already familiar with such exotic ports as Bilbao, Toronto and Milwaukee. His style is heroic and unmistakable, the structures brave and daring, and the color just about always seems to be white.
The Hemisphere is an IMAX theatre in the shape of a giant eyeball floating on a lake. The lower glass screens open up to create this massive open air eye while most of the common functions (tickets, shops, restrooms) lie below the water line. The structure to the left of the Hemisphere protects a large and linear botanical garden, while the building under construction on the right is a future opera house, at last confirming that the arts do indeed have a place in the City of Arts and Sciences.
The opposite view of the last picture (for those with especially good memories), showing the ever familiar Hemisphere with its lurching companion, the science museum.
The same buildings (which in turn was the opposite view of two pictures back, for anyone noticing any trends).
A construction view of the once and future Opera House (actually, only the future Opera House come to think of it). In the foreground is an interesting though not blatantly heroic Calatrava bridge.
Another construction view. If you haven't been to the City of Arts and Sciences internet site yet, you are probably wondering when the construction crews are finally going to get around to filling in that big diamond shape hole on the side there.
