page_title: City of Arts and Sciences
section_title: Buildings and structures
hierarchical_section_title: City of Arts and Sciences / Buildings and structures
caption_attribution_description: Español: El Ágora, Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, Valencia, EspañaEnglish: The Agora, City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia, Spain
context_page_description: The City of Arts and Sciences is a cultural and architectural complex in the city of Valencia, Spain. It is the most important modern tourist destination in the city of Valencia and one of the 12 Treasures of Spain.
  The City of Arts and Sciences is situated at the southeast end of the former riverbed of the river Turia, which was drained and rerouted after a catastrophic flood in 1957. The old riverbed was turned into a picturesque sunken park.
  Designed by Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela, the project began the first stages of construction in July 1996, and was inaugurated on 16 April 1998 with the opening of L'Hemisfèric. The last major component of the City of Arts and Sciences, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, was inaugurated on 9 October 2005, Valencian Community Day. The most recent building in the complex, L'Àgora, was opened in 2009.
  Originally budgeted at €300 million in 1991 for three structures, it has expanded about three times the initial expected cost.
context_section_description: The complex is made up of the following buildings and structures, in order of their inauguration:
  L'Hemisfèric (1998) – an IMAX Cinema, planetarium and laserium. The building is meant to resemble a giant eye, and has an approximate surface of 13,000 m². The Hemisfèric, also known as the planetarium or the "eye of knowledge", is the centerpiece of the City of Arts and Sciences. It was the first building completed in 1998. Its design resembles an eyelid that opens to access the surrounding water pool. The bottom of the pool is glass, creating the illusion of the eye as a whole. This planetarium is a half-sphere composed of concrete 110 meters long and 55.5 meters wide. The shutter is built of elongated aluminum awnings that fold upward collectively to form a brise soleil roof that opens along the curved axis of the eye. It opens to reveal the dome, the "iris" of the eye, which is the Ominax theater. The City of Arts and Sciences is divided in half by a set of stairs that descend into the vaulted concrete lobby. The underground spaces are illuminated with the use of translucent glass panels within the walking path. The transparent roof is supported by concrete arches that connect to the sunken gallery. There is a remarkable echo in the building and if two people stand at the two opposite pillars inside of the eye they can speak with each other.
  Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe (2000) – an interactive museum of science that resembles the skeleton of a whale.  It occupies around 40,000 m² on three floors. Much of the ground floor is taken up by a basketball court sponsored by a local team and various companies. The building has three floors, of which 26,000 square meters is used for exhibitions. The first floor has a view of the Turia Garden that surrounds it, which is over 13,500 square meters of water. The second floor hosts "The Legacy of Science" exhibition by researchers Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Severo Ochoa y Jean Dausset. The third floor is known as the "Chromosome Forest" and shows the sequencing of human DNA. Also on this floor are the "Zero Gravity," "Space Academy" and "Marvel Superheroes" exhibitions. The building's architecture is known for its geometry, structure, use of materials, and its design around nature. The building is about 42,000 square meters, of which 26,000 square meters is exhibition space, making it the largest in Spain. It has 20,000 square meters of glass, 4,000 panes, 58,000 m³ of concrete, and 14.000 tons of steel. The building stands 220 meters long, 80 meters wide and 55 meters high.
  L'Umbracle (2001) – an open structure enveloping a landscaped walk with plant species indigenous to Valencia (such as rockrose, lentisca, rosemary, lavender, honeysuckle, bougainvillea and palm trees). It harbors in its interior The Walk of the Sculptures, an outdoor art gallery with sculptures by contemporary artists (Miquel de Navarre, Francesc Abbot, Yoko Ono and others). The Umbracle is also home to numerous free-standing sculptures surrounded by nature. It was designed as an entrance to the City of Arts and Sciences. It is 320 meters long and 60 meters wide, located on the southern side of the complex. It includes 55 fixed arches and 54 floating arches that stand 18 meters high. The plants displayed were carefully picked to change colour with each season. The garden includes 99 palm trees, 78 small palm trees, and 62 bitter orange trees. There are 42 varieties of shrubs from the Region of Valencia including cistuses, mastics, buddleia, pampas grass, and plumbagos. In the garden there are 16 species of Mirabilis jalapa, or the four-o'clock flower ("beauty of the night"). Honeysuckle and hanging bougainvillea are two of the 450 climbing plants in L'Umbracle. There also are 5,500 ground cover plants such as lotus, agatea, Spanish Flags, and fig-marigolds. There are over a hundred aromatic plants including rosemary and lavender.
  L'Oceanogràfic (2003) – an open-air oceanographic park. It is the largest oceanographic aquarium in Europe with 110,000 square meters and 42 million liters of water. It was built
caption: L'Àgora
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 5D Mark II", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.5 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2014:08:23 22:36:11", "Image Artist": "Diego Delso", "Image Copyright": "CC-BY-SA 3.0", "Image ExifOffset": "264", "EXIF ExposureTime": "13/10", "EXIF FNumber": "11", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:06:29 20:42:22", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:06:29 20:42:22", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "-23657/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6918863/1000000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "24", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "76", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "76", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "5616000/1459", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1872000/479", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "4262104084", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[17, 40, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF17-40mm f/4L USM"}