Iconic Glass Structures – China Central Television Headquarters

In our ongoing series on iconic glass structures, we’ll look at China Central Television Headquarters (CCTV) in Beijing. The CCTV Headquarters makes heavy use of glass, and was designed and built over a period of eight years, between 2004 and 2012. The building is actually three buildings that have been joined together, and reflects a desire to eschew the standard height-based evaluation of modern commercial architecture.

Construction on the tower was delayed by a massive fire that ripped through an adjacent structure in 2009. The fire caused extensive damage to the building under construction. The CCTV building was nearly complete at the time of the fire, and pushed back the building’s completion by about three years.

The CCTV Headquarters replaced the old China Central Television Building, a standard cement and glass tower that still stands about 10 miles away from the CCTV Headquarters Building.

The CCTV Headquarters Building has won a number of awards and recognitions since its opening. While most buildings are designed as a tower, the CCTV Headquarters is a loop, with members that extend both vertically and horizontally in the complex. The completed design looks something like a Mobius strip. The building’s design is credited to the East China Architectural Design and Research Institute.

The building has 51 floors, three of which are underground. The complex offers about 4.2 million square feet of office space and features 75 elevators.

Not everyone is impressed with the building’s unusual architecture. Locals often refer to the CCTV Headquarters as “Big Pants,” a nod to the building’s unusual shape.

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Photo Credit: November-13 , via Flickr.com