Higher, grander, costlier

• Source: The Global Times
• [22:17 May 18 2009]
• Comments

Despite these objections, the center was finished and is now looking to be named one of Beijing's Top 10 Modern Buildings, a design competition organized by the Beijing Daily Group and the local construction industry. All entries, except memorial buildings, must measure at least 50,000 square meters and the winners will be named in October.

Pearl Tower of the Three Gorges monument in Chongqing

While Zhang was critical of the art center, he claimed it did have some value as a tourist attraction during the Olympics. A far greater “waste of money” is the new CCTV complex, he said.

Dubbed “big short pants” by Beijing locals, the building has a poor load-bearing capability and a low resistance to shock, Zhang claimed. Ole Scheeren, one of the building's designers, however, said in an interview broadcast via the Chinese website of Radio Netherlands Worldwide in 2007 that the building's “diagrid” design structure takes all of the pressure.

The 230-meter-high skyscraper was connected by two “Z”-shaped circular structures and at about 180 meters height, a 70-meter-span building is “suspended” in the air. An article in US magazine Newsweek described it simply as “gravity-defying.”

Wang Jun wrote in his book that the management committee of Beijing Central Business District had received many calls from citizens concerned that the building was leaning.

In 2006, Information Times said that increasing the building's seismic design level from seven to nine doubled its cost to 10 billion yuan.

Wang noted in his book that to reduce operating costs and increase potential profits, the designer proposed a ring-shaped sightseeing walkway.

The State-owned broadcaster did suffer a setback in February, however, when its 158-meter-high Television Cultural Center, an annex to the main building, caught fire during an illegal fireworks display. A firefighter was killed while tackling the blaze.

While no one can predict what lies in store for CCTV or its distinctive tower, it is most probable it will at least be completed. Many of China's other “iconic” structures struggle even to get off the ground.

In Chongqing Municipality, an “immigration monument” shaped like the Chinese character “hua” was demolished last year despite being only half built.

“We need an explanation,” read a commentary in Workers' Daily in November. “Taxpayers' money can't be abused like that.”

Although authorities in Chongqing have yet to comment on the demolition, Workers' Daily claimed the aborted project had cost taxpayers about 20 million yuan.

Also last year, also in Chongqing, the 92-meter, 8.6-million-yuan Pearl Tower of the Three Gorges monument was demolished after a three-year hiatus.