Calatrava the Cubist

In a move that's sure to overshadow Daniel Libeskind's presence in the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan, Santiago Calatrava released his design for a residential tower at 80 South Street in New York City. Coming just over a month after he unveiled his design for the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, the startling new design features twelve stacked cubes, each 45-feet high. The concept is based on sculptures that the architect/engineer/artist started over twenty years ago.


80 South Street, Santiago Calatrava.
Image from the New York Times.

The 835-foot tall tower is being developed by Frank J. Sciame who estimates the completion of the project in 2006 or 2007.

In today's New York Times (registration req'd), the paper's architecture critic Herbert Muschamp is quoted as saying, "Chicka-boom!" I'll agree with Michael Sorkin that we need a Herbert Muschamp, the most popular architecture critic in the country, but are lines like that his eccentricity or just him trying to appeal to the masses? Regardless, his focus on "starchitects", like Calatrava, has become the norm in his columns at the unfortunate expense of more important issues.

[Added 03.04: Check out Turning Torso, a residential tower by Calatrava under construction in Sweden. Thanks to Eric M.]