Page 67 - OCEAN BLUE - SPRING 2016

ARCHITECTURE

T he Oculus is a room that soars under a great arc
of glass. Calatrava has put together a space that is
uplifting, full of light and movement, and capable
of inspiring hope which has been in particularly
short supply at “Ground Zero”.

The Oculus cost billions of dollars of public money and yet is
a shrine to the commercial marketplace. This however doesn’t
lessen the impact of the architecture nor negate the fact that this
is the first time in fifty years that New York City has built a truly
sumptuous interior space for the benefit of the public.

Standing inside the Oculus and gazing up is jaw-dropping.
Curved, steel-ribbed walls rise up 160 feet like a pair of immense
ethereal wings toward a ribbon of glass that is the giant hall’s
skylight. The sun pours through the skylight, whose glass panes
may be opened and closed. Using one of the architect’s favorite
words, the new spaces are indeed “monumental” – open and
airy, a radical transformation of space in an area of the city that
can often feel closed-in and tightly confined.

When asked about his inspiration, Calatrava cites famous
structures from antiquity, including the Parthenon, the
Pantheon, the Hagia Sofia and the Alhambra in his native Spain,
as well as American landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge and
Grand Central Terminal.

Calatrava has defined his style as bridging the division between “I have tried to get close to the frontier
structural engineering and architecture. In his projects, he between architecture and sculpture and to
claims to continue a tradition of Spanish modernist engineering understand architecture as an art.”
that included Antonio Gaudí with a personal style that derives
from numerous studies of the human body and the natural - Santiago Calatrava
world.
www.oceanblueMAGAZINE.com 67