When Santiago Calatrava first was awarded the competition to build the Milwaukee Art Museum, beating out such luminaries as Arato Isozaki and Fumihiko Maki, the thought of such an exciting building did not exist.
There were already sections of the MAM extant, built by Eero Saarinen and David Kahler. But it was evident that by the late 1980s there would need to be some sort of a drastic change if the museum was to provide an effective ongoing service to its patrons and visitors.
The museum directors at least had the vision to see that sweeping changes would be necessary, but it is highly unlikely that they could even begin to imagine what Santiago Calatrava might have had in store for them.
One of the earlier problems before any of the construction got underway was the budget. Like many such projects, the estimated cost grew rapidly due to the ever expanding vision which Mr. Calatrava had for the building. Read the rest of this entry »


