Blog About Photography

The new China Cen­tral Tele­vi­sion Build­ing in Bei­jing will be one of the largest build­ings ever con­structed. It is, how­ever, only 57 sto­ries tall. It is not a typ­i­cal sky­scraper; it’s donut-​​shaped design has made it a mar­vel since it was cho­sen by the Chi­nese gov­ern­ment in 2002. The build­ing, which will occupy a space as large as 37 foot­ball fields, will be com­pleted in 2008 and is cur­rently the sub­ject of the exhi­bi­tion, “OMA in Bei­jing” at MoMA. The Exhi­bi­tion was reviewed today by the New York Times.

I don’t really know any­thing about archi­tec­ture beyond what was dis­cussed in an art his­tory course my sopho­more year of col­lege, but this build­ing does seem to inspire awe, just as its designer says it does in the Times review. Before this build­ing, it would seem to me that a sky­scraper was a sky­scraper, extend­ing upward like a mono­lith, tak­ing on what­ever mod­ern or post-​​modern affects its designer envi­sioned. But we’re basi­cally talk­ing about one shape here. This build­ing (you can’t call it a tower) is pow­er­fully inno­v­a­tive because it has elim­i­nated the sky­scrap­ers phal­lic nature, some­thing that those of us with­out archi­tec­tural vision thought impos­si­ble to circumvent.

So Kudos on this really rad build­ing. And keep up the good work.

Posted on Friday, November 17th, 2006 at 1:36 pm