THURSDAY & FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16-17, 2006

Part of our trip to Barcelona included a two-day side trip down the coast to Valencia. Yes, the same one known for their oranges. It's a three and a half hour train ride from Barcelona and right on the Mediterranean coast as well. Oh, and it's the birthplace of Antonio Calatrava, one of my favorite architects.

As it turned out, this trip was pretty much about his new City of Arts and Sciences, a large, three-building complex of monumental icon buildings that is sure to put Valencia on the architectural and tourist map the same way Gehry's Guggenheim Museum did for Bilbao. La Ciutat, as it is called in the local dialect, also lies next to an aquatic park called L'Oceanografic, which we also visited.

The helmet building in the background is the Palace of Music. It was not officially complete when we went there, but we could obviously get close enough to take a lot of photos of it. The "turtle shell" in the foreground is L'Hemispheric, an IMAX theater. Calatrava's organic structuralist style comes in very clearly here, and you can see another quirk of L'Hemispheric: when the lighting conditions are right, the building and its reflection on the fountain surrounding it give it the impression of being a large eyeball. Pretty neat, if you ask me.

We went inside the Science and History Museum (photos of the exterior to come later) and met Isaac Newton and my homeboy, Albert Einstein.

By the time we exited, it was dusk. Perfect time to get this nice shot of L'Hemispheric as the sky was still saturated with traces of a sunset hue.

Here's L'Hemispheric straight on.

And here's a later night shot of the first photo you saw.

This is an exterior photo of the Science and History Museum. It's quite skeletal and kind of resembles a stegosaurus. An abstracted stegosaurus.

Another photo of L'Hemispheric.

Here's the theater in from of the Science and History Museum, plus their reflections off of the fountains surrounding the buildings. Now might be a good time to mention that this complex is built on the dried up riverbed of a river that used to run through the center of the city, until officials diverted the flow following a particularly disastrous flood in the 1950s or 60s, I believe.

Another shot of L'Hemispheric and the Science and History Museum.

The next day, we paid a visit to L'Oceanographic, which can best be described as a marriage of a traditional aquarium with a Sea World. In any case, it was beautiful.

Once the clouds parted and the sun came out, it really looked like an aquatic paradise.

Fake rocks and curvy buildings.

And curvy buildings.

The big spherical cage houses a variety of exotic birds. The building in the middle of the background is the Science and History Museum. The tower to the right is for cell phones, I think.

Here's some day shots of La Ciutat.

I don't think it's too much of a stretch to compare Calatrava to Gaudi, really.

Close-up detail shot of the Science and History Museum.

The Palace of Music.

The Palace of Music behind L'Hemispheric... from a different angle.

Boy, I'm repeating photos a lot, aren't I?

Science and History Museum.

At ground level with the entrance to the Palace of Music, the building starts to look like some weird fish creature. Or at least that's if you look at the window glazing as "teeth."

I got that hat for free because the bar I went to the previous night had some promotion where if you ordered a drink with this new brand of rum, you got a free gift. The hat was the best gift available.

Right next to L'Hemispheric is a covered garden walk called "L'Umbracle." Also designed by Calatrava, this entire structure apparently resists shear even though it doesn't actually have any specific moment connections. My professor explained his theory on how they did it, but I'm not quite sure I understand it, so I'm not going to try to explain it.

One last shot at the Fish Or Stormtrooper Helmet Building Thingy.

And while we didn't really get to explore the city itself as much as I would have liked, I should mention that the city center is very, very beautiful.

Hopefully, I'll get another chance to visit Valencia sometime in my lifetime. I have a feeling the city will grow to become a vibrant and popular metropolis, yet still retain its original smalltown charm.