Comments on: ArtSunday: Hidden in plain sight — seen by many, known by few

By: Russ Wellen

Russ Wellen — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:00:29 +0000

Thank you, Martin. I’ll make those corrections.

By: Martin Filler

Martin Filler — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:53:41 +0000

You get several things wrong, apart from the 2005 Calatrava exhibition being not at the Museum of Modern Art, but at the Metroplitan Museum of Art. More importantly you completely misrepresent my opinions of both Calatrava’s Valencia Planetarium and World Trade Center Transportation Hub, neither of which I like, as I make perfectly clear in my New York Review of Books essay, which you obviously misread. –Martin Filler

By: Russ Wellen

Russ Wellen — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:01:22 +0000

Thanks, Elaine. I’m ashamed to say that I only discovered Calatrava a few months ago when my wife brought a book about his early works home from a tag sale.

Looking at his European bridges, my reactions were: 1. I had no idea structures were being built like this anywhere, and 2. They could never be built in the US.

But both have happened (sometimes, Dr. D., for better; sometimes for worse).

By: Elaine

Elaine — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 18:50:05 +0000

rubbernecking!

By: Elaine

Elaine — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:22:01 +0000

…and THERE is..

By: Elaine

Elaine — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:21:09 +0000

The photograph posted at the start is a stunner!

I am forever rubbing necking as I pass buildings on my travels in the passenger seat. Nothing makes me tear up more than seeing rundown man made structures, with broken windows, missing windows or boarded up openings where windows once were.

When the buildings are built sympathetically and their is marriage with water…it takes my breath away.

The most miserable place I ever visited was East Berlin the year the wall came down. It was a place that was dark grey, dank, cracked, creaking, potholed, rubbish strewn, filled with broken windows and boarded up windows….

…give me the shanty town or Belize City’s wooden structures over the concrete brown and grey ‘outhouse’ buildings that that filled me with a sense of desolation when seeing the environment that the East Germans once had to endure.

Wonderful post…and I forgive Prince Charles for going on, and on, and on about modern architecture in the UK…

By: Dr. Denny

Dr. Denny — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:32:51 +0000

An exceptional piece, Russ. I particularly like the ‘end notes’ â€” the other side of the story.

By: Brian Angliss

Brian Angliss — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 15:14:49 +0000

Thank you, Russ. I’ve loved cool architecture for a long, long time, and while I can’t say I have any real knowledge of architecture as such, I greatly appreciate that you’ve put some time into introducing us to Calatrava.

By: Dr. Slammy

Dr. Slammy — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 12:19:00 +0000

I’ve never known much about architecture, other than sometimes I see buildings that blow me away and others that make me wonder what the heck somebody was thinking. But this guy’s stuff is spectacular. Which probably proves that I’m a bumpkin, huh?