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Tim Hales / AP
Designed by Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond, the ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture is made up of 63 percent recycled steel and incorporates the five Olympic rings.
LONDON -- Red, twisted and 72 feet higher than the Statue of Liberty, the ArcelorMittal Orbit now looms over the Olympic Park as the tallest sculpture in Great Britain.
Designed by Turner Prize-winning artist Anish Kapoor and architect Cecil Balmond, tabloid newspapers have branded it "the Eye-ful Tower," "the Godzilla of public art" and worse. Others say it looks like a roller coaster gone badly awry.
Even London's normally garrulous Mayor Boris Johnson struggles to describe the $36-million structure. "It is very absorbing to look at," he says. "It has got that weird enigmatic tubey Fallopian quality about it if I'm being totally blunt."
'A 45-second conversation'
The idea for what has been called a "deconstructed Eiffel Tower" was formulated in 2009, when Johnson and steel magnate Laksmi Mittal discussed creating something dramatic for the Olympics while attending the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
The ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture towers over the 2012 Olympic Park. The brainchild of London's Mayor Boris Johnson, the Orbit is the subject of much debate.
"This was conceived in a 45-second conversation in a cloakroom!" Johnson recalled on Friday, as officials announced the 2,000-ton tower had been completed.
Mittal contributed $31 million to the project, with the rest of the cost being covered by public funds. However, the sculpture has proved controversial at a time when the U.K. is grappling with massive spending cuts.
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Kapoor says he expected to evoke a mixture of responses to his latest work. "When you make a new addition of this scale to the London skyline, its bound to be controversial, and there are those who love it and those who don’t and we'll see what time does," he said.
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Kapoor noted that Paris's iconic Eiffel Tower was considered "the most tremendously ugly object" by many when it was first built.
Belmond, who described the looping structure as "a curve in space," said he thought people would be won over by it.
Visitors will be able to pay $24 to go up the 35-story structure in an elevator when it opens during the Olympic Games in July.
Olympic housing crunch: London landlords evict tenants to gouge tourists
On a clear day, views from its observation deck extend for 20 miles across London and the green hills beyond.
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A diverse community in East London will welcome the world to Britain for the 2012 Olympic Games. Meet residents and hear how they feel about having a huge, world stage in their backyard.
The tower will be at the heart of a new 560-acre park, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, that will include a lush river valley, biking trails and a tree-lined promenade.
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After the Games, Johnson says he expects millions will visit the Orbit, and that it will be become a landmark.
He believes other Londoners will come to love it, too.
"I think so," he said, then paused. "In the end."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
The minds eye fills in the blanks suggesting a DNA strand.
Yes, I believe that this is what it was meant to suggest.
Fascinating.
I like "The Eiffel Topwer on Acid." But it should go well with the "Gigantic Penis" nearby. And I am sure the same people thought it was a wonderful idea to put that giant Ferris Wheel directly across from the Houses of Parliament so that it is effectively in most of your London Pictures.
When I saw the picture and hadn't read the story, my first reaction was "Where is this new roller coaster? I have GOT to ride this thing!" Then I read the story and saw it was described as a "roller coaster gone wrong." Trust me, this would make an awesome coaster.
Fascinating? Really?
Pass on concept, Fail on execution. It makes me want to hurl.
Talk about a colossal waste of money.
FUNNY Youtube video on the stupid London Olympic tower (2012):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LT2zV3YtGU
This is really funny !
Put a roller coaster inside, or at least a tube slide, and it will actually be useful.
FWIW, I think it's bad ass.
Looks like a tornado eating a duct tape factory.
I actually laughed out loud at your comment...because it's absolutely, perfectly true.
They painted the wreckage of the Hindenburg.
I'm from Tuscaloosa --- we don't use the "t" word lightly.
As if this some kind of privilege?! That's got to be one of the ugliest things I've ever seen.
Made me laugh as well, lol.
"Artists" are laughing all the way to the bank. Go figure.
"Visitors will be able to pay $24 to..." Report to English 101 now!!
I can totally believe that.
So can I. 44 of those seconds were probably spent breathing heavily and moaning, and this monstrosity looks like the final product of that liaison.
I'll bet spiders are going to love it.
I'm so sick of butt-ugly "art".
Surely there must of been a better way to spend 35 million dollars???????
London must have solved the problems of feeding the poor and lowering taxes.
Yeahhhhh...not a fan....but what do I know, huh? I'm not a member of the London 'Modern Art Mafia'.
I'm still trying to determine where the "five" Olympic rings are in that so-called piece of "art". I see one ring at the top, and the rest is a spiral connected by junk piping. Why were public funds ever committed to such a project?
Wow, what a sight for sore eyes, and the name suits it well. Ahem... or maybe " Good Gosh-zilla" or "OMG-zilla".
This is the kind of Erector Set I wanted as a kid. I wonder if there is a small version sitting around?
That monstrous thing is not a sculpture. Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond, sick mind may think so. Its a insult to art to call that a sculpture.
and there are children in this world with not a drop of fresh drinking water.
Ugly piece of junk. Waste of money that could have helped homeless and needy people. The raw stupidity and lack of urgence of the financial turmoil in the world. I'm appalled to say the least!
I guarantee that 95% of the British population are thinking and saying the same thing ... and a whole lot more, like all of that money should have been used to create jobs for the huge numbers of unemployed in England.
I have to admit to being a bit excited - thinking it WAS a new thrill ride....!!!
Ugly as hell.
35 million dollars and kindergarten kids could have made a better design. At least the Eiffel Tower had form, and sense of what art is, but this, NO WAY.
Doesn't matter if it is re-cycled or not. It is just plain ugly and unintelligent. The "award" winning designers should be ashamed of themselves for having stole that much from the Brits.
I am betting the Brits have about 35 million ideas of better ways that money could have been spent.
After the olympics it will just be so much scrap metal.
Someone made a very FUNNY Youtube video on the stupid London Olympic tower (2012):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LT2zV3YtGU
Has Jeremy Clarkson weighed in on this piece of trash yet? If so I'd love to hear it.
Just because somebody called it a sculpture doesn't make it so. My mangled bike after the garbage truck ran it over is now ART.
Well it does not really matter what people think of it because the entire Olympic part is an external development not really part of London as a lived city. For the next year the only people who will ever see this thing will be tourists going to the Olympics. After that the area will be of limited use. Perhaps one of London's teams will use the part as a stadium, or concerts might be had there. If so people might notice it when they go by it, but the stadium is very much outside of the normal area of Londoners.
The big issue is the mass of money being spent on development outside of the real space of London, and the masses of money changing hand and people getting even more rich backed by the tax payers in a corner of London which was very poor and is now under State control and State funding, carried out by Conservative political leaders: its Englands own little piece of China on the East End.
Is it your money why would you give a fk?
Erock, Mr. Hooker's insightful and relevant opinion has nothing to do with having sex.
"Awful Tower"
It's doing what it's suppose to do -- cause people to look, ponder, comment, look again, and again, converse, etc. It's good art!
"It's doing what it's suppose to do -- cause people to look, ponder, comment, look again..."
A pile of dog poo on the sidewalk will do the same thing.
I'm jealous of London. In Washington, DC, if a proposed new structure is not Bored Arts or Coca Cola Colonial, it won't get approved.
Visit Union Station. There, you will find public restrooms with floaters that have all the panache and creativity of this London tower.