CCTV Headquarters | |
---|---|
中央电视台总部大楼 | |
Alternative names | China Central TV Headquarters Central Chinese Television Tower |
General information | |
Location | East Third Ring Road Guanghua Road Beijing, China |
Coordinates | 39°54′48″N 116°27′29″E / 39.91347°N 116.45805°ECoordinates: 39°54′48″N 116°27′29″E / 39.91347°N 116.45805°E |
Construction started | 1 June 2004 |
Completed | 16 May 2012 |
Owner | China Central Television |
Management | China Central Television |
Height | |
Roof | 234 m (768 ft) |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 51 3 below ground |
Floor area | 389,079 m2 (4,188,010 sq ft) |
Lifts/elevators | 75 |
Design and construction | |
Architect |
Office for Metropolitan Architecture East China Architectural Design & Research Institute |
Developer | China Central Television |
Structural engineer | Ove Arup & Partners |
Main contractor | China State Construction and Engineering Corporation |
References | |
The CCTV Headquarters is a 234 m (768 ft), 44-story skyscraper on East Third Ring Road, Guanghua Road in the Beijing Central Business District (CBD). The tower serves as headquarters for China Central Television (CCTV) that was formerly at the China Central Television Building located at 11 Fuxin Road some 15 km (9.3 mi) to the west. Groundbreaking took place on 1 June 2004 and the building's facade was completed in January 2008. After the construction having been delayed as result of a fire which in February 2009 engulfed the adjacent Television Cultural Center, the Headquarters has been finally completed in May 2012. The CCTV Headquarters won the 2013 Best Tall Building Worldwide from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren of OMA were the architects in charge for the building, while Cecil Balmond at Arup provided the complex engineering design.
The main building is not a traditional tower, but a loop of six horizontal and vertical sections covering 473,000 m2 (5,090,000 sq ft) of floor space, creating an irregular grid on the building's facade with an open center. The construction of the building is considered to be a structural challenge, especially because it is in a seismic zone. Rem Koolhaas has said the building "could never have been conceived by the Chinese and could never have been built by Europeans. It is a hybrid by definition". Because of its radical shape, it's said that a taxi driver first came up with its nickname dà kùchǎ (大裤衩), roughly translated as, "big boxer shorts". Locals often refer to it as "big pants". A Chinese critic said that the structure was modeled after a pornographic image of a woman on her hands and knees, which Koolhaas has officially denied.