Here it is! Santiago Calatrava's "Oculus", the main centerpiece of the $4 billion WTC Transportation Hub. It officially opened to the public today in a limited form. Construction is still very much going on at the moment but the skeleton of the structure is more or less finished. Beautiful, sure, but nothing new for Calatrava.
Lots of mixed commentary, obviously, about this new grand structure with some people rightfully saying that this was a huge waste of public taxpayer money.
The first thing you notice when you walk in through WTC building 4 is that the Oculus is very much a commercial show-off piece for Westfield (they own the property). It isn't a civic or public space like Grand Central despite its name as a transportation hub. A sad fact honestly given how much this place cost.
In my opinion the whole thing feels...cheap. I'm struggling to find the right word. Maybe cheap isn't it. Maybe it is. But I feel like maybe that shouldn't be one of the words that comes to mind when thinking about this project.