Cable-Stayed Bridges - Sundial Bridge (8)

One last look at the Sundial Bridge. What I called a crackled glaze on the pedestal supporting the tower actually looks like broken pieces of white ceramic pottery grouted onto the surface. This was a technique used to great effect by Calatrava's countryman Antonio Gaudi in Park Guell (and in many other works).

This is a nice view of the bridge from under the deck, reinforcing yesterday's statement that you can't take a bad photo of this bridge.

The watercolor below must have been an early conceptual sketch Caltrava made to visualize the forces in his bridge. Writing this blog reminded me of some of the recent posts from the Tall Bridge Guy on painting, painted bridges, and on 3D computer graphics.

It's apparent that Calatrava is expert in all three forms of expression. His video of the Calgary Bridge was a thoughtful exploration of how the bridge would look at different times of day and at different times of the year. His roughest sketches are full of thought and feeling, And even though this bridge is painted white, it has elements of mosaic and sculpture.

Cable-Stayed Bridges - Sundial Bridge (8) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.