Hasta La Ideas

Since mid-September when the news broke that renowned architect Santiago Calatrava announced that he was walking away from the massive, $500 million redevelopment project at the Denver International Airport, the Denver Post has been killing it with all the ins and outs of what ultimately led to the break up. Now the paper has filed perhaps the best and most interesting read about the fallout. Combing through hundreds of documents between Calatrava’s firm, the contractor, and the airport, the Post writes about how the “dysfunctional relationship” ultimately dysfunction-ed itself to death, largely with the airport trying to act as the middleman between the two other warring parties. If you’ve ever wondered how projects as large as these fall apart (or how sometimes, occasionally, things actually get built), it’s a terrific read about all the ins and outs of a development this large. And we don’t think it’s a spoiler at all to tell you that these battles aren’t usually held while looking over blueprints or moving scale models around — instead, it’s a bevy of lawsuits and angry contract negotiations. In the end, hardly anyone comes across looking very good, starchitect or otherwise.

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