Soft Spin

Back in Toronto now.  I still have a lot to post from my trip.  But something local for now from earlier ...

Heather Nicol's installation under the arches of Santiago Calatrava's 1992 Allen Lambert Galleria at Brookfield Place, Toronto 2014:

Stapelbäddsparken + Södra Varvsbassängen

Stapelbäddsparken is a skatepark I found just a couple blocks from Turning Torso when I visited Malmös last summer:

Santiago Calatrava's 2005 Turning Torso + mirror image:

Neighbouring Stapelbäddsparken is the interesting industrial Södra Varvsbassängen:

Calatrava's wings @ Milwaukee

I took a day trip to Wisconsin's Milwaukee Art Museum, which is 1.5 hours by Amtrak train from Chicago.  Santiago Calatrava's 2001 wing-like Quadracci Pavilion brought me there and I was not disappointed.  The dramatic interior space created by the great Spanish architect is absolutely phenomenal.  You have to be there to experience it.  Its setting by the vast and open Lake Michigan is just as stunning ...

Alexander Calder's mobile hangs fittingly in the entrance lobby.  I love those circles.

Turning Torso

It was my first day in Malmö yesterday.  I'm not going to write about my visit to Moderna Museet today, maybe some other time.  I went to see the tallest building in Scandinavia last evening - Santiago Calatrava's 2005 Turning Torso.  It's a really spectacular tower, gracefully twisting its way up into the air while dwarfing all structures around in this northern land.

Calatrava + Nizam

Santiago Calatrava's 1992 Allen Lambert Galleria at Brookfield Place (formerly known as BCE Place) is a light-filled 6-storey high atrium supported by parabolic arches that rise like a forest canopy.  It is high drama in the heart of Toronto's financial district.

James Nizam's light sculpture Pyramid once existed in Calatrava's galleria.  It is now materialized as a photographic banner hung in the lofty atrium.

Neue Nationalgalerie

Completed in 1968, Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin is Mies van der Rohe's last work.  It is considered one of the most perfect architectural statements of this great master of modern architecture.  The use of monumental steel columns supporting a cantilevered roof with a glass enclosure allows full flexibility of the interior space.  A truly great masterpiece.

Barnett Newman's equally monumental Broken Obelisk sits comfortably on the podium of NN.

With artist Frank Stella and architect Santiago Calatrava's collaborative effort, this installation was constructed and hanging under NN's vast roof when I visited there this summer: