Beton Brut
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If I'm not mistaken, Calatrava studied with the Zakim's designer, Swiss engineer Christian Menn.
If I'm not mistaken, Calatrava studied with the Zakim's designer, Swiss engineer Christian Menn.
http://www.luag.org/pages/viewfull.cfm?ElementID=342Most of the exhibited sketches concern a project that preoccupied Menn in the late 1970s: the Ganter Bridge on the Simplon Pass road in the Swiss Canton of Valais. The professional and academic world was fascinated with the innovative suspended box-girder in concrete. At the time Calatrava was completing his last semester with Menn , and being an architect as well as an engineer, began to experiment with the forms his professor had designed. Although he did not voice his opinion out loud, he discerned more potential in the new idea than Menn had realized, and he sketched a series of variants, some simple and some fantastic to prove his point. Calatrava showed these to his mentor, who was intrigued.
That year the International Association of Bridge and Structural Engineers celebrated its 50th anniversary with two events, a symposium in Zurich in the fall of 1979 and an international congress in Vienna the following spring. Menn gave a talk on his new bridge at the symposium to a packed audience. In the back of the hall stood the students, assistants, and lecturers of the ETH, Calatrava among them, together with a few celebrated professionals. All were enthusiastic about the project, when surprisingly Menn paused to tell the audience that a ‘young architect’ had played with his idea and come up with series of interesting variants that he wanted to share with his listeners. He then proceeded to project slides of Calatrava’s sketches to the astonishment of the audience.
Or hire a street artist. Or just put up a sign that says "Graffiti me, please, but tastefully."They should hang some art up on that segment.
That's adaptive reuse done right.