So I have just returned from a 3 day trip to Valencia and I hate to be a hater but here I go anyway... I am appalled at the lack of holistic vision for the city of Valencia! They have invested billions of euros in schemes that were poorly planned and are not creating returns for the city.
#1 Offender: Calatrava's City of Arts and Sciences
Now, I've always admired Calatrava's work, the purity of their white forms inspired by nature, the soaring bridges... he created so many wonderful icons for cities around the world. But when it came to his home town of Valencia, he went too far. The arts and science complex represents everything wrong with the rampant Spanish spending that created their current economic crisis. Just looking at the complex, it looks like they wrote the architect a blank check and said, "go nuts!". They could have created a powerful monument with just a couple of buildings, but the white futuristic complex seems to go on forever. And besides the gross expenditure of over a billion euros, it is completely non-contextual. Because it was created in the river bed of the Turia River that was moved due to flooding, it was literally a tabla rasa. It does not connect to the urban fabric around it at all or reference anything about Valencia. The only bits that relate are the symbolic use of water (Valencia is on the sea) and the Guadi-esque tile work that is a signature of the region. But honestly I think he just wanted to use water because it makes a nice reflection of the eye-shaped building! There were also no people there! Granted it was in the last two weeks of August when the whole country goes on vacation even in the tourist areas. But we could not get into most of the buildings and it was just a huge empty space. I hope that there is more programming during the rest of the year.
#2 America's Cup 2007
The city invested in massive infrastructure to host America's Cup in 2007 which has sat abandoned since the end of the event.
So the city, again invested heavily in a scheme to host this famous sailing regatta and reorganize the port area. And from what I can see from visiting is that this area is currently not accessible to the public and completely blocks the waterfront. The only way besides bus to reach Valencia's famous beaches is to walk along the abandoned row of regatta buildings near the port in the scorching sun! There is little sidewalk space or planting, you just walk by row after row of shoddily built regatta structures that were obviously put up in haste with cheap materials.
#3 Turia Gardens
The Turia river had always flooded wildly which is why the original walled city of Valencia was not built closer to the sea. But after a serious recent flood, the river was moved to a channel south of the city leaving the river bed open. In place of the river, they built a park.
In general this is great. It creates a green corridor across the whole north side of the city. The challenge of this was because it was a river, the whole area was sunken below street level to protect from floods. So already there was a series of historic bridges crossing the area. It is lushly planted with tropical trees and has walking and bike paths throughout. Just the fact that it is there is good for the city. But the design could be much better and well maintained. And it might be because I walked from the bus station to my hotel along the entire length of the park in the heat with my rolling suitcase, but it seemed extremely monotonous.
So what is the problem? I mean, this should be great; there is a new linear park across the whole city, a reorganized port, and a new arts and science complex as a cultural icon like Bilbao. But what is missing, clearly was a LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT considering the whole integration and intention of the masterplan! This could have been an amazing thing for the city, but instead it is a series of isolated budget blowing projects (excluding the park I think) that do not connect the urban fabric at all! What a loss, truly for the city of Valencia because the center city is charming and worthy of a visit all on its own.
The lovely sandstone churches and feathery leaved trees hint at its seaside location and warmer climate. And the beaches, while not Spain's best, have soft sand, warm Mediterranean water, and with the new high speed train are the closest to the capital of Madrid. If only they had spent some of the billions of euros on an integrated masterplan that generated increased tourism, made the waterfront more accessible, while also being contextual and creating a better urban environment overall instead of creating a Disney style series of monuments only to be reached by tourist bus!
Just another sad example of opportunity lost and non-contextual, non-integrated planning.
Rant complete:) Please comment if you feel I have missed something or if there is some history to the planning of these areas that would shed some light on their condition.
