| China Central Television 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 | |
| Construction started | 1 June 2004 |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 44 |
| Floor area | 389,079 m2 (4,188,010 sq ft) |
| Elevator count | 75 |
| Design and construction | |
| Owner | China Central Television |
| Management | China Central Television |
| Main contractor | China State Construction and Engineering Corporation |
| Architect | Office for Metropolitan Architecture East China Architectural Design & Research Institute |
| Developer | China Central Television |
| Structural engineer | Ove Arup & Partners |
| References | |
| [1][2][3] | |
The CCTV Headquarters is a 234 m (768 ft), 44-storey skyscraper in the Beijing Central Business District (CBD) and serves as headquarters for China Central Television (CCTV). Groundbreaking took place on 1 June 2004 and the building's facade was completed in 1 January 2008. Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren of OMA were the architects in charge for the building, while Arup provided the complex engineering design.
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The main building is not a traditional tower, but a loop of six horizontal and vertical sections covering 473,000 m (1,552,000 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. 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".[4][5]
The building was built in three buildings that were joined to become one and a half buildings 30 May 2007. In order not to lock in structural differentials this connection was scheduled in the early morning when the steel in the two towers cooled to the same temperature.[6] The CCTV building was part of a media park intended to form a landscape of public entertainment, outdoor filming areas, and production studios as an extension of the central green axis of the CBD.[7]
The Office for Metropolitan Architecture won the contract from the Beijing International Tendering Co. to construct the CCTV Headquarters and the Television Cultural Center by its side on 1 January 2002. It is among the first of 300 new towers in the new Beijing CBD. Administration, news, broadcasting, and program production offices and studios are all contained inside.
CCTV Headquarters was officially opened by the Chairman on 1 January 2008. Among the distinguished guests at the opening were Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin, Wen Jiabao and Guo Jinlong.
An adjacent building in the complex, the Television Cultural Center, caught on fire, ignited by fireworks on Lantern Festival day, 9 February 2009, before the building's scheduled completion in May 2009. It was to have the Beijing Mandarin Oriental Hotel, a visitor's center, a large public theatre, two recording studios with three audio control rooms, a digital cinema and two screening rooms. The 520 ft. Mandarin Oriental Hotel was badly damaged and one fire fighter was killed.[8][9] On October 25, 2009, scaffolds were set up in the front gate of TVCC which indicated the renovation of the building had begun.
As of 9 February 2010, the main CCTV tower was still unoccupied. The building appeared vacant at night for much of the year with lights appearing only in the upper floors. In September and October on two notable occasions the entire tower complex was alight at least from one of the towers.[10] The Television Cultural Center will be repaired
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