Calatrasaurus (Santiago Calatrava-designed World Trade Center Transportation Hub)

The Santiago Calatrava-designed World Trade Center Transportation Hub was announced in 2004 to have the design of a “bird in flight.” The project was long delayed; the project cost doubled.  Hana R. Alberts of Curbed NY wrote on June 18, 2014, “When all’s said and done, it will look like this flying bird, but who feels like a porcupine or stegasaurus vibe is more palpable right now?”
 
New York (NY) Post architecture critic Steve Cuozzo responded on Twitter on June 18, 2014, “@CurbedNY You mean the Calatrasaurus.” Cuozzo’s Post opinion on August 2, 2014 stated:
 
“Here comes The Calatrasaurus — the Port Authority’s ‘World Trade Center Transportation Hub,’ a cyclopean PATH terminal onto which scary ‘wings’ have been grafted like plastic mutant terrors of 1950s sci-fi movies.”
 
   
Wikipedia: World Trade Center (PATH station)
World Trade Center is a terminal station in Lower Manhattan built for PATH service. It was originally opened on July 19, 1909 as the Hudson Terminal, but was torn down and rebuilt as the original World Trade Center station, which opened in 1971. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, a temporary station opened in 2003. This station serves as the terminus for the Newark – World Trade Center and Hoboken – World Trade Center routes. The station is currently undergoing a major reconstruction project and will become the World Trade Center Transportation Hub after its completion, scheduled on December 17, 2015.
 
Wikipedia: Santiago Calatrava
Santiago Calatrava Valls (Valencian pronunciation: [santiˈaɣo kalaˈtɾava ˈvaʎs], born 28 July 1951) is a Spanish architect, structural engineer, sculptor and painter. He has offices in New York City, Doha, and Zürich, where he now resides.
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Calatrava has designed a neofuturistic railway station, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, at the rebuilt World Trade Center in New York City. It is expected to open in 2015, six years behind schedule, at a cost of $4 billion, twice the original budget.
   
Curbed NY
CONSTRUCTION WATCH
Calatrava’s World Trade Center Transit Hub Spreads Its Wings
Wednesday, June 18, 2014, by Hana R. Alberts
Since the last check-in on the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, the long-overdue project has sprouted wings. Yes, those white dohickies protruding from the “flying bird” are currently being installed. According to the the WTC Progress Facebook page, all the rafters for the oculus should be in place by August, and welding will come after, and the hub set to open next year. (Don’t make any bets.) When all’s said and done, it will look like this flying bird, but who feels like a porcupine or stegasaurus vibe is more palpable right now? So iles to go, but at least there’s progress, which helps everyone forget that the $4B project is delayed and over-budget.
 
Twitter
Steve Cuozzo
‏@stevecuozzo
@CurbedNY You mean the Calatrasaurus
3:10 PM - 18 Jun 2014
 
Twitter
Steve Cuozzo
‏@stevecuozzo
The Calatrasaurus: a roller coaster or a fish bone? pic.twitter.com/nmusaJKerD
2:42 PM - 30 Jul 2014
   
New York (NY) Post
New York’s $4B shrine to government waste and idiocy
By Steve Cuozzo August 2, 2014 | 11:00pm
Here comes The Calatrasaurus — the Port Authority’s “World Trade Center Transportation Hub,” a cyclopean PATH terminal onto which scary “wings” have been grafted like plastic mutant terrors of 1950s sci-fi movies.
 
Or do the wings, not plastic but steel, suggest teeth whittled down by a sadistic dentist? Or a giant fishbone? The Hub exhausts your capacity for cheap jokes.
 
With each passing week, the embarrassing ugliness of this $4 billion boondoggle designed by Santiago Calatrava — a hideous waste of public money — grows plain for all to see.
 
Twitter
Steve Cuozzo
‏@stevecuozzo
Death to the Calatrasaurus! My objection to the PA’s $4B WTC Hub http://nyp.st/1s050EG  via @nypost
7:41 PM - 3 Aug 2014