Architect Santiago Calatrava accused of ‘bleeding Valencia dry’ | World news | guardian.co.uk

Architect Santiago Calatrava accused of ‘bleeding Valencia dry’

Leftists accuse top architect of raking in escalating amounts of cash from regional government to build giant cultural park

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Giles Tremlett in Madrid

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 8 May 2012 19.11 BST

A view of a large part of the City of the Arts and Sciences, by architect Santiago Calatrava. Photograph: Heino Kalis/Reuters

Stunning bridges, airports and daring buildings have made him famous around the world, but now Santiago Calatrava is facing fierce criticism for his dealings with the local government in his home region of Valencia.

The architect, who designed the roof of the Athens Olympic stadium, is under fire from political opponents of the conservative-run authority, and a website highlighting fees paid to him by Spanish taxpayers has been launched.

Calatrava has charged some €100m (£81m) to the Valencia government, according to the website, established by the leftwing Esquerra Unida party. The party says it has managed to see copies of bills paid by the People’s party regional government to the architect, who is now based in Zurich.

Esquerra Unida says contracts were given to him via “an unpublicised negotiating system establishing his payments as a percentage of the final cost of each project, which doubled or tripled in respect to the original budgets”.

via Architect Santiago Calatrava accused of ‘bleeding Valencia dry’ | World news | guardian.co.uk.