"Wonderful, thank you!"

Those were Santiago Calatrava's words today when he was notified that he is the recipient of the 2005 AIA Gold Medal. He followed by saying, "I feel very honored...I will try to be at the level of this honor for the rest of my career and honor you with my work." Having seen Calatrava lecture before, I can hear the sincerity in his voice saying those words. My friend Frank will perhaps find some solace in the Spanish architect's award after he was passed up for the Pritzker Prize earlier in the year.







Calatrava is known for his structurally inventive and expressive designs, many resembling skeletal structures and other natural forms. It is easy to dismiss his architecture as repetitive, both structurally within each project and from one design to another (though I don't see this as a drawback). But having visited two of his projects - BCE Place in Toronto and Stadelhofen Station in Zurich - I'd say Calatrava is not only a great shaper of structure and space but a greater urbanist, able to stitch parts of the city together in each instance; another reason he's deserving of this award.



Update 12.03: AIArchitect has a page on Calatrava winning the 2005 AIA Gold Medal. In other AIA news, Murphy/Jahn will receive the 2005 AIA Architecture Firm Award. Interesting that a firm so grounded in Europe recently is receiving the AIA's highest firm honor. But like Calatrava, this points to the international scope of architecture and its practice.