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China Central Television Headquarters

China Central Television Headquarters is an iconic skyscraper lording over an area in the Beijing Central Business District still sparse of nearby skyscrapers. This allows it to become a more noticeable landmark due to its unique design and architecture. And because of it, the unique skyscraper has been nicknamed by Beijing residents as “Big Boxer Shorts”. The tower currently serves as the headquarters for China Central Television or CCTV network.

China Central Television Headquarters History

Groundbreaking ceremonies for the construction of the China Central Television Headquarters took place in June 1, 2004. It was built in an area that was planned to be a landscape for public entertainment and media park. An unfortunate fire caused by fireworks that happened to an adjacent Television Cultural Center building in February 9, 2009 during the Lantern Festival greatly delayed the completion of the skyscraper. The building was eventually completed in May 2012.

China Central Television Headquarters Features

The CCTV Headquarters stand 234 meters or 768 feet high. In has holds 44 stories of space shared between its two connected towers. It was designed by Rem Koolhaas and Ole Schereen of OMA while Arup took charge of its complicated engineering design.

Just by looking at it, the CCTV Headquarters is far from being considered as a traditional tower. It features a loop consisting of six horizontal and vertical sections that are interconnected to create an irregular grid for a building’s facade with an open space at the center. The building was initially constructed as three separate buildings that were later joined together to become one and a half buildings by May of 2007.

The skyscraper is built with no movement joints and is considered as one of the world’s largest single structural systems. The building can be described as composed of two towers composed of 45 and 51 stories each. Both are joined together above the 37th floor and below the 10th floor. The CCTV Headquarters is one of the first of the planned 300 new towers to be built in the newly proposed Beijing media park.
Architecture Design – GuideTo.Com

Tags: Central, China, Headquarters, Television