How Much is that Rolex in the Window?

Photos by José Hevia

 The one with the Molybdenum eyes? If you have to ask....

My latest assignment took me to Puerto Adriano, a Philippe Starck designed marina on the island of Mallorca, to visit the latest jewelry boutique for the Relojería Alemana by the young Madrid-based architect couple Jaime Oliver and Paloma Hernaiz of OH-Lab.

Selling luxury goods to new-rich foreigners from Russia, China and the Middle East is one of the few areas in which the Spanish economy is actually booming.

Here the attractive young sales staffers, dressed in tall heels and the rest, are a Russian blond and a petite Bulgarian. If you look the part and linger too long over the window displays, they will slip a glass of French champagne into your hands and start to chat you up in a soft purring voice with a beguiling accent. The real high-rollers are ushered into the suede-lined VIP room, where a panel pops open to reveal a glittering back-lit bar with an exquisite selection of icy, transparent liquors. A dangerous mission indeed.

Your mission, if you chose to accept it, is to read my article before it self-destructs in 30 days, That's right, the magazine removes its web content after a month, except for subscribers.

Midas Touch
"On a tony new marina, a young duo crafts a glittering jewel box for a storied luxury retailer"
Architectural Record, Record Interiors, September 2013

New Life for Utzon's Can Lis

News brief: Jørn Utzon's 1971 Can Lis house in Mallorca will open this fall as a study center dedicated to the architect, reports SCALAE. It is operated by the Utzon Foundation, based in Denmark.

Utzon's second home on the island, Can Feliz (1991-94) remains in the hands of the Utzon family.

For more on the story, the house and how to apply for a residency:
Danish Arts: News and Danish Arts: Funding.

Photo from SCALAE.

Calatrava: Case Update

In a post on January 4th I discussed the court case on Santiago Calatrava's unrealized project for a waterside opera in Palma de Mallorca, where I wrote:

News is still scarce, but ... Santiago Calatrava's ... 1.2 million euro fee for the design of an opera in Palma de Mallorca in 2007 has raised the suspicions of Judge José Castro... The judge is investigating the regional President at the time, Jaume Matas, for 25 cases of illegal bribes, kick-backs and other schemes for robbing public funds.

Here is an update on the case:
Both Calatrava and Matas have been indicted by the judge, and have testified before him since our last post. The major accusations to emerge so far are two.

First, on the part of ex-President Matas, the commission was given to Calatrava without following legal procedures, which require competitions to be organized for all public projects, among other things, and without any preliminary studies justifying the project. According to the accusation, the design was a public relations stunt concieved by Matas during an election campaign. In fact, the public commission overseeing the electoral process at the time halted the execution and publication of the project as a violation of campaign fair play.

Matas is therefore accused of using public funds "for exclusively personal and partisan interests," according to prosecutors. The judge has imposed a bail of 1.6 million euros on Matas for his potential personal liability in the case; this is in addition to the 3 million euros he has already posted for other charges in related cases (El País, 02.13.11; 03.03.11) .

Secondly, Calatrava`s office has been accused of numerous irregularities in billing the project, most flagrantly the failure to pay the required 16% Value Added Tax (VAT) on the 1.2 million fee, or more than 160,000 euros, according to a report presented by the Spanish tax authority to the court (El Mundo 01.17.11).

Calatrava is also accused of being an accomplice and party to the fraud perpetrated by Matas. He presented only two models, a video and a power point presentation of the design, without any other documents or studies, according to the prosecution. The local press in Mallorca has picked up accusations that Calatrava lifted the design directly from a 1989 competition project for a floating structure in the Lake of Lucerne (see for example here), a charge Calatrava has denied in court.

Stay tuned for further developments...

Spanish Judge Investigates Calatrava

Note: For an update on this entry, see 03.03.11 post.

After a number of ongoing investigations into major political corruption scandals related to the Spanish building boom, a well-known architect has been indicted as a suspected participant in one case.

News is still scarce, but the suspect is Santiago Calatrava, whose 1.2 million euro fee for the design of an opera in Palma de Mallorca in 2007 has raised the suspicions of Judge José Castro, reports the Barcelona newspaper El Periódico (December 31, in Spanish). The judge is investigating the regional President at the time, Jaume Matas, for 25 cases of illegal bribes, kick-backs and other schemes for robbing public funds.

Architects like Calatrava and Peter Eisenman have collected exaggerated fees for their work in Spain, as Llàtzer Moix documents in his recent book Arquitectura Milagrosa. But this does not imply that Calatrava participated in the corruption in Mallorca. He is of course presumed innocent, and the court's investigation remains secret until an official trial, if any, is undertaken.

Photo: The real crime here is aesthetic. Model of Calatrava's proposed opera in Palma de Mallorca, 2007. Source: Diario de Mallorca.