what d'you think of the ArcelorMittal Orbit?

that mad olympic tower thing...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/may/11/orbit-tower-drunken-party-animal

it's obvious why it's likened to bosch's tower of babel and those abandoned soviet monuments. it cost nearly £20M, 3M of which came from the public purse...

i'd like to reserve judgement until i see it up close but i'm not going to... my initial reaction is it's pretty nasty looking... and all that money could be better spent upgrading the surrounding area - check out the state of the housing nearby. it's an unnecessary (please convince me otherwise!) display of wealth and engineering prowess in a time when we should not be waving our massive erection in the face of a western world on it's knees. overly dramatic of me maybe, but it's the fuckin truth... RUTH!

please watch the video and tell me what you think about it.

It looks disgusting.

I don't know what else it's supposed to represent aside from a fairground helter-skelter. Are they particularly British? If they are, I can let the idea fly, but it still looks atrocious.

I can't imagine it will even provide a nice view to be honest. Certainly not as interesting as the view from the London Eye. Maybe a glimpse into each stadium, but aren't some being demolished (for more park area) and downscaled after the Olympics anyway?

  Quote

It is disconcerting to learn that while the tower has been paid for by the richest man in the world, it will cost the ordinary visitor £15 a head – £7 for children — to enter. Yet as you look down into the structure’s central well, with a great mass of red girders spiralling beneath you, and then turn to see the immensity of London rolling away ahead, you can almost believe it will be worth the price.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-reviews/9260470/Anish-Kapoors-Arcelor-Mittal-Orbit-Olympic-Park-London-review.html

£15 to take the elevator, or more likely scale the staircase, and then be shepherded in front of a mirrored window to view the factories and run-down hovels of Stratford. Stupid tourists.

saw this thing up close a couple of weeks ago. looks ugly as fuck, i was sincerely hoping it was still a work in progress. ..

edit: this was much better http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/may/10/ai-weiwei-anish-kapoor-sculpture

looks a bit like Michael Bolton

It might make a good base of operations if London falls into chaos though.

its very christmasy

it reminds me of pat butcher for some reason

now if it WAS a massive helter skelter i'd be impressed but you can't even slide down it after you've been robbed £15 for an aerial view of a blighted country splurging pounds on an extravagant pissing contest.

an exceptional piece, imo

Looks like a rollercoaster

  On 5/15/2012 at 4:32 PM, patternoverlap said:

Looks like a rollercoaster

Exactly my thoughts! Put a rollercoaster in the red parts and it'll be amazing!

kapoor is so far up his own ass at the moment it's hilarious

He forked out for most of the costs. It looks shite and its got his name on it.

What bugged me the most was that the steel came from abroad, it didnt even keep british structural engineers busy.

15 pounds to have a look round? mental.

i would sell my left penis to see the view from the top

Looks like a Wndows 98 screensaver.

i have no problem with the idea of building a hugely expensive folly for the olympics, but unfortunately i think what they have produced is ugly as fuck.

  On 5/16/2012 at 1:01 PM, Rambo said:

i would sell my left penis to see the view from the top

I'll give you 3 ArcelorMittal Orbits for your left penis.

BCM paying hard to get, there.

Interesting tactic there. Saying you don't like it = decreased public demand = cheaper admission fee. Very clever BCM

thanks

State of it.

Why is it red and grey for fucks sake?

  On 5/15/2012 at 3:38 PM, Gary C said:

It looks disgusting.

  On 5/16/2012 at 3:13 PM, BCM said:

i have no problem with the idea of building a hugely expensive folly for the olympics, but unfortunately i think what they have produced is ugly as fuck.

  On 5/15/2012 at 5:32 PM, dr lopez said:

kapoor is so far up his own ass at the moment it's hilarious,

totally, he's an argumentative little bitch in that video clip

edit: sad thing is, I could see the same basic approach - (central saucers "bursting at the seams" with metal latticework - working really well, if someone just gave it the proper proportions and sense of lift. They certainly didn't.

it looked considerably better in the concept stage:

http://www.dezeen.com/2010/03/31/arcelormittal-orbit-by-anish-kapoor/

It looks like a sad architect had a real juicy brain fart.