Santiago Calatrava
Doctor of Arts 2005
Status: conferred
Santiago Calatrava, internationally renowned Spanish architect, engineer, and artist, seamlessly combines sculptural expression with dynamic structure in architectural creations that appear to grow from nature. Reflecting his passion for movement and form, Calatrava's spectacular designs range from the 2004 Athens Olympic Sports Complex to the proposed Trinity River bridges in Dallas. His bridges, transportation stations, and cultural centers throughout the world are among the most acclaimed structures of the past two decades. His projects in the United States include the design for a transportation hub for the World Trade Center site in New York City. His creativity is represented at SMU by his monumental fountain-sculpture, "Wave," in front of the Meadows Museum. In 2000 Calatrava received SMU's Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts, and a retrospective presentation of his work was the inaugural special exhibition of the new Meadows Museum in 2001. Time magazine included Calatrava in its 2005 list of the world's 100 most influential people, starting that he "accomplishes what only great architects can: he creates transcendent spaces that uplift the human spirit." For his visionary designs uniquely combining art and functionality, his enrichment of our civic environment, and the impact of his creativity in Dallas and at SMU, Southern Methodist University is honored to confer upon Santiago Calatrava the degree of Doctor of Arts, honoris causa.
Santiago Calatrava, internationally renowned Spanish architect, engineer, and artist, seamlessly combines sculptural expression with dynamic structure in architectural creations that appear to grow from nature. Reflecting his passion for movement and form, Calatrava's spectacular designs range from the 2004 Athens Olympic Sports Complex to the proposed Trinity River bridges in Dallas. His bridges, transportation stations, and cultural centers throughout the world are among the most acclaimed structures of the past two decades. His projects in the United States include the design for a transportation hub for the World Trade Center site in New York City. His creativity is represented at SMU by his monumental fountain-sculpture, "Wave," in front of the Meadows Museum. In 2000 Calatrava received SMU's Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts, and a retrospective presentation of his work was the inaugural special exhibition of the new Meadows Museum in 2001. Time magazine included Calatrava in its 2005 list of the world's 100 most influential people, starting that he "accomplishes what only great architects can: he creates transcendent spaces that uplift the human spirit." For his visionary designs uniquely combining art and functionality, his enrichment of our civic environment, and the impact of his creativity in Dallas and at SMU, Southern Methodist University is honored to confer upon Santiago Calatrava the degree of Doctor of Arts, honoris causa.