The Irish Times

Santiago Calatrava, it might be imagined from the spectacular structures he designs, should be a flamboyant, larger-than-life figure, like Falstaff or the late James Stirling. In fact, he is the reverse - diminutive, softspoken, even slightly self-effacing. Calatrava, the world's preeminent bridge-builder at the age of 50, flew in to Dublin last week (on his way from Paris to Brussels) to explain his design for a a dramatic, 120-metre cable-stayed bridge in the Docklands area at an An Bord Pleanála oral hearing in the Gresham Hotel.