CALATRAVA’S LAWSUIT OVER BILBAO BRIDGE ADDITION DISMISSED; ARCHITECT WILL APPEAL

Judge Edmundo Rodríguez Achútegui of Section 1 of the Mercantile Court of Bilbao has dismissed a suit filed by Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava against the city council of Bilbao and two construction firms, reports Expatica. Calatrava brought the action after a walkway extension was added to his well-known bridge over the River Ria, nicknamed the Zubi Zuri. After just a month of deliberation, the judge ruled on Spain’s first lawsuit for the violation of the integrity of a work of engineering, which saw Japanese architect Arata Isozaki in direct conflict with Calatrava. Pending the result of an appeal (which Calatrava’s counsel promptly announced after the ruling), there will be no demolition of Isozaki’s recently opened pedestrian walkway, which connects with Calatrava’s bridge, or payment of the €3 million ($4.42 million) indemnity demanded by the architect, who received a total of CHF 500,000 ($447,000) for the Zubi Zuri. The ruling does, at least, censure the municipality for not having made “the least effort” to employ Calatrava for the walkway extension or to obtain his authorization, deeming the behavior “incomprehensible.”