On the other side of the harbour from my office on Hong Kong Island, the tower of the new ICC building is taking shape in West Kowloon. Known as a "superskyscraper", it will be 490m tall and Hong Kong's tallest building on its completion in 2010. It already looks too big for its surroundings: the only thing distinguishing it, like most skyscrapers, is its height.
At certain times of day it throws a shield of reflected sunlight across the harbour almost too bright to look towards - it's changed the landscape of the harbour forever. Did the architects realise that when the sun hit the glass at a certain angle it would shine out like a contemporary Pharos? There's something so arrogant and at the same time quite astonishing about it.
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4 comments:
The picture reminds me of God's Grandeur, a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem (1918, long before this towering folly was conceived):
It will flame out
Like shining from shook foil
It certainly draws attention to itself, but I'm not sure if it's doing it in a good way. It seems a bit crass, too self important, like it's bullying the other buildings.
Ever since you mentioned this, I keep noticing it looming over Kowloon. I can’t believe you can see it from the end of my street and I hadn’t noticed until now. I've put a photo of it from this angle on my blog. It just blends gently into the smog behind Yau Ma Tei.
Thanks for the link, Diana. I think there's quite a lot more to go so "gently" may not be the word you're using by the time it's done... There's a real poverty of the imagination in its design.
Quite a few of the lower floors are apparently already occupied.
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