Unfinished Mandarin Oriental hotel in Beijing is on fire

by Scott Carmichael on

What was supposed to be the flagship hotel of the Mandarin Oriental chain in China, has turned into a 40 story inferno.

The fire has lit up the Beijing skyline, and took place in the final hours of the Chinese Lunar New Year – when many people are setting off fireworks.

The Mandarin Oriental Beijing is located next to the new headquarters of China Central Television, but that building is said to be undamaged.

A grand opening was scheduled for later this year. The hotel was originally slated to open in time for the 2008 Olympics but has been delayed several times.

The hotel portion is just a small part of the complex called the “Television Cultural Center” and was designed by award winning Dutch Architect Rem Koolhaas of OMA, who is also responsible for the design of the neighboring CCTV building.

According to eyewitness reports, the entire hotel has suffered damage, but thankfully nobody was present in the building at the time.

(VIA: CNN)

Update: Shanghaiist has more photos and video clips of the fire. The fire is apparently so intense that the building is close to a total collapse.

New Chinese Architecture: the “Wild East”

by Iva Skoch on

China’s rise as an economic power has prompted daring feats of construction; China’s getting known as the “Wild East” when it comes to this new construction. And they’re putting up new buildings at a tremendous pace: some 10,000 new structures in all, particularly with next year’s Olympics coming. I certainly witnessed it in Shanghai-Pudong a couple years back.

But now take, for example, the new, $800m, China Central Television Tower in Beijing, designed by Rem Koolhaas. Daring to defy the requirement that all skyscrapers point up, Mr. Koolhaas designed one that loops back on itself. The main feature: it’s got an overhang that’s an amazing 11 stories tall, 250 ft. above the ground. The building will be the world’s second-largest office building, after the Pentagon.

It’s now reaching a very precarious moment: the two halves of the building are being joined soon, according to the WSJ. First, it’s in an earthquake zone, so they had to test a three-story replica on a quake-testbed to make sure it’ll last because it’s like stacking two bridges together. Second, the two halves lean on each other so much that they must join the final pieces at dawn, so that the sun’s heat won’t distort or expand one half more than the other. I just hope the thing holds up.