Santiago Calatrava vs. Frank Gehry: Who is the World’s Best Architect?
By the sheer scale of their work, architects—especially a globe-trotting class of starchitects— can have an outsize impact when compared to other artists. A painting or sculpture may become a sensation, but hovering above a skyline, a building can stand as a mark of civic pride—or a wildly expensive eyesore. At the end of the 20th century and well into the 21st, two of the most celebrated and divisive starchitects have had their fair share of both.
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ARCHITECTURAL STYLE Neo-futurism | ARCHITECTURAL STYLE Deconstructivism |
AGE 67 | AGE 90 |
FIRST COMMISSION Ernstings Warehouse in Coesfeld, Germany, 1985 | FIRST COMMISSION David Cabin in Idyllwild, Calif., 1957 (a private family |
GREATEST TRIUMPH Quadracci Pavilion at Milwaukee Art Museum combined his  | GREATEST TRIUMPH The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is considered one of the  |
PRITZKER PRIZE Nope | PRITZKER PRIZE 1989 |
IF YOU WANT TO HIRE HIM, IT WILL COST… $60 million to $4 billion |
IF YOU WANT TO HIRE HIM, IT WILL COST… $22.7 million to $1 billion |
SCORECARD 80 (45 buildings + 34 bridges) | SCORECARD 78 buildings |
WHAT’S KEEPING THEM BUSY UAE Pavilion at the Dubai World Expo 2020 is the centerpiece  | WHAT’S KEEPING THEM BUSY Luma Arles tower in France, expected to open spring 2020, is a  |
HAS NEVER MET A… Budget he didn’t want to set on fire | HAS NEVER MET A… Straight wall that couldn’t be bent |
MOST OVER-BUDGET PROJECT 4x  | MOST OVER-BUDGET PROJECT 2.5x  |
WHAT HIS BIGGEST CRITICS SAY “Calatrava bleeds you dry.”—A Spanish website | WHAT HIS BIGGEST CRITICS SAY “I’m not saying that the world doesn’t need any more swoopy |
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