Architect, artist, and engineer Santiago Calatrava was born on July 28, 1951, in the town of Benimamet, near Valencia, Spain. He attended primary and secondary school in Valencia and from the age of eight also attended the Arts and Crafts School, where he began his formal instruction in drawing and painting. In 1968, he enrolled in Valencia’s Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura, where he earned a degree in architecture and took a post-graduate course in urbanism. Attracted by the mathematical rigor of great works of historic architecture, Calatrava then decided to study civil engineering and enrolled in 1975 at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. He received his Ph.D. in 1979. During this period he met and married his wife, who was a law student in Zurich.

After completing his studies, Calatrava began to accept small engineering commissions and enter competitions. His first winning proposal, in 1983, was for Stadelhofen Railway Station in Zurich, the city in which he established his office. In 1984, he won the competition for Bach de Roda Bridge, commissioned for the Olympic Games in Barcelona. This was the first of the bridge projects that established his international reputation. Others that followed were Alamillo Bridge in Seville (1987-92); Campo Volantin Footbridge in Bilbao (1990-97); and Alameda Bridge in Valencia (1991-95).

Calatrava established an office in Paris (now closed) when he was working on the Lyon Airport Station (1989-94). He opened an office in Valencia in 1991 to facilitate work on a very large cultural complex and urban intervention, the City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia (ongoing). He established an office in New York City in 2004, after receiving the commission to design the World Trade Center Transportation Hub (immediately adjacent to the Ground Zero site) and designing 80 South Street Tower, an innovative residential high-rise overlooking the East River.

Calatrava’s artwork was first exhibited in 1985, with a showing of nine sculptures at Jamileh Weber Gallery in Zurich. Solo exhibitions followed at the Royal Institute of British Architects, London (1992), The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1993) and Santiago Calatrava: Artist, Architect, Engineer, at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy (2000-2001). In 2005 two solo exhibitions about his work as an artist were mounted in New York, one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art titled “Santiago Calatrava: Sculpture into Architecture” and at the second at the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute, “Clay and Paint: Ceramics and Watercolors”.
Major projects that were recently inaugurated include Sondica Airport, Bilbao, Spain (2000); The Bridge of Europe, Orléans, France (2000); Bodegas Ysios winery in Laguardia, Spain (2001); Calatrava’s first building in the United States, the expansion of the Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, USA (2001); James Joyce Bridge, Dublin Ireland; Auditorio de Tenerife, Santa Cruz, Canary Islands, Spain (2003); Three Bridges over the Hoofdvaart, Hoofddoorp, Holland (2004); Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay, Redding, California, USA (2004); Athens Olympic Sports Complex (2004); Zurich University Law Faculty (2004) and Turning Torso Tower, Malmö, Sweden (2005). Among the projects that are coming to completion are Petach Tikvah Bridge, Israel (2006), Quarto Ponte sul Canal Grande, Venice, Italy (2006); and the Palacio de las Artes, Valencia, Spain (2006), the last major building in his City of Arts and Sciences. Among his major recent commissions, Calatrava has been selected to design the Symphony Center for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in Atlanta, Georgia, USA and the Permanent World Trade Center Path Terminal, New York, USA, and 80 South Street Tower, New York, USA.

Santiago Calatrava is the recipient of numerous awards, including 12 honorary doctorates and the AIA Gold Medal, the highest honor given by the American Institute of Architects.