For China, the Olympics represent an opportunity to show the world what the country had become. In order to put it’s best face on, China commissioned a bunch of new buildings. There’s a new Olympic stadium and a new terminal at the airport, but the building getting the most attention is the gravity-defying structure for China Central Television Headquarters.
Here’s more, from Tehran Times:
- It’s an audacious monolith that looks like two drunken high-rise towers leaning over and holding each other up at the shoulders.
- The eye-catching building, which is nearly finished, will be the headquarters of China Central Television, the staid propaganda arm of China’s ruling Communist Party , and it’s perhaps the boldest and most daring of several new buildings that have given Beijing a stunning new appearance for the upcoming Summer Olympic Games.[...]
- “It captures the spirit of the country at this point in time, a really daring spirit to look into the future and try the impossible,” said Rocco Yim , a Hong Kong architect who sat on the jury in 2002 that selected the winning design for the tower.
- Yim dismissed the criticism that’s poured in from ordinary Chinese, some of whom say the building lacks Chinese features. Others say it’s too costly, at $800 million , or that its 44-acre footprint is too big for such a central city location.
- “ The Eiffel Tower was detested by half the population of Paris when it was built,” Yim said.
Read the rest of the story here.
Rebecca 4 months ago
That sure is a distinctive looking piece of architecture. I kind of like the look of it. $800 million, though…damn.