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Boris's Tower On The Olympic Park


Mr Tickle

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A link to something planned not too far from me up here in North Wales:

http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/85657/proposal-for-6m-regional-landmark-to-be-built-in-wrexham-poll.aspx

http://www.shropshirestar.com/2010/03/01/dragon-tower-plan-revealed/

Now, I'm not too sure on the dragon (would prefer a much more modern interpretation) but quite like the rest of it - and something similar (minus the dragon) could work as the Olympic Cauldron/Tower, assuming the two are one and the same thing, with a cauldron situated on top of the central spine.

I've even worked out how it would be lit. It breaks my own rules about hydraulics and actual contact between torch and cauldron, but basically when the flame arrives in the stadium a fairly simply cauldron/platform would rise out of the centre of the stadium, with a glass spine. That cauldron would then be lit at the top, and we'd then see the flame travel quickly down the spine and disappear into the ground, and then (as seamlessly as possible) rising through the central spin of the cauldron tower to light the cauldron at the top.

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`Olympic Orbit 2012’ will be built close to the 2012 Stadium, and is expected to be funded by billionaire steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal. Somebodys seen it, the launch seems iminent and they are desribing it as a rust colour spiral around a lift twice the height of the London Eye.

http://blog.propertyweek.com/2010/03/26/barrie-on-boris’s-olympic-orbit/

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Apparently the wait will finally be over tommorrow. The tower is gonna be revealed in all its towering glory Wednesday

Oh yeah and apparently it looks trumpety LOL.

So we've had broken rings, a spiral around a lift and now a trumpet. Only a few hours till we find out I suppose : )

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Here it is

1.jpg

A spiralling sculpture designed by Turner Prize-winning artist Anish Kapoor has been chosen as the monument to mark the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The 115m tall piece, named the ArcelorMittal Orbit, will be placed in the Olympic Park and will be 22m higher than New York's Statue of Liberty.

The £19.1m design incorporates the five Olympic rings and will offer visitors panoramic views of London.

London Mayor Boris Johnson revealed plans for the tower on Wednesday.

"I am deeply honoured to be invited to undertake this challenging commission," Kapoor said.

"I am particularly attracted to it because of the opportunity to involve members of the public in a particularly close and personal way. It is the commission of a lifetime."

The artist will work with leading structural designer, Cecil Balmond of engineering firm Arup.

Organisers said Balmond had worked on "some of the greatest contemporary buildings in the world", including the CCTV building in Beijing, as well as numerous Serpentine Gallery pavilion commissions.

''Long after the games are over, our aim is to have a stunning spectacle in east London that will be recognised around the world," Mr Johnson said.

Steel company ArcelorMittal will fund up to £16m of the project with £3.1m provided by the London Development Agency.

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If this is indeed the cauldron tower, I would imagine they would allow the public to gather around the base of the tower, maybe together with the athletes... forming a huge crowd. Then the final torchbearer will run from inside the stadium to outside, past the huge crowd and climb up the tower to lit the cauldron.

This would involve the public for the first time in the cauldron lighting, more inclusive and feels really like a public event not only contained outside the stadium!

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Is this really the best design we could come up with? I absolutely hate it. :angry: What a completely pointless piece of crap. An oppurtunity for something really striking and imagintive and....we get this. Tragic!

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Even if it is the cauldron tower (which I very much doubt), it's 100 times more interesting than Atlata's tower. Sorry.

A more interesting angle:

article-1262533-08F12DDA000005DC-332_634x503_popup.jpg

Even so...it seems to defeat the concept of economy and being kind to environment that a post-Games, scaled-down Olympic stadium is supposed to imply. Is that all where the removed steel went? :blink:

I mean will Londoners be taken for a ride? It looks like one of our Puppy's mad, 'fevered' fantasy-logo offerings. And one just thinks of that other graceful tower across the Channel; and you see Gustave Eiffel smiling smugly in his grave. :(

Was the "artist" a failed roller-coaster designer? :blink:

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Oh my god! Never mind putting the cauldron on top, I think we'll see the whole thing burnt to the ground. I was expecting something modern and graceful which would blend into the Olympic park rather than stick out like a sore thumb.

And if it is home to the cauldron, it's going to look even more hideous just dumped on the top. Whether it over shadows it or not, seeing that I'd rather the Cauldron be hooked to the inner rim of the stadium roof ala Beijing than have the indignity of being place on that.

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It's an unusual design (would probably be referred as Art if shortlisted for the Turner Prize). I don't think I would have picked up on the design incorporating the five Olympic rings unless I had read the article beforehand. I can only make out two slightly misshapen and twisted rings.

Alas as Citruis says, it might take on a whole different look during Olympic nights with lighting, and it might, just might, look better in the flesh ;)

*wow I remembered my forum log-on after 15 months away. Yet, I can't remember what I wanted to go downstairs for 10mins ago??

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