The Library of Galicia
Galician archives
Museum of Galicia
Center for Music and Performing Arts
International Art Center
Central services
Surroundings
Environment
Inspired by the historic city of Compostela, the complex shall be articulated by streets, colonnades, gardens and plazas, transcending the mere concept of a cultural center to become a city with a life of its own, where visitors may not only enjoy the programming scheduled for each building, but also go shopping, eating out or just simply strolling.
Five pedestrian streets link all the buildings to a main central plaza, surrounded by 25 hectares of parkland with walkways for strolling and leisure.
The built-up area includes parking space for around one thousand cars, a main road with access from downtown Santiago and the highway AP-9, enabling access from all over Galicia.
The Hejduk towers also deserve a special mention. They were designed in 1992 by the architect John Hejduk (New York, 1929-2000) to be built as a part of the Botanical gardens in Belvís, a project that never materialized.
When Hejduk passed away, Peter Eisenman suggested to erect them at the City of Culture as a memorial to their author, a friend of his and colleague in The New York Five, the group that best represents the spirit of neo-rationalism in architecture.
John Hejduk
John Hejduk studied at the Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture and at the University of Cincinnati, later on graduating at the Harvard School of Design in 1953. From 1965 onwards he became a freelance architect. He belonged to the group of The New York Five. His work has been acknowledged as one of the most suggestive in North-American architecture of the turn of the millennium. He has written World-reference books such as Mask of Medusa or Bovisa.