Design
Tuesday, 05 January 2010 06:01
Written by JFK Miller

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A look back at the tower that defined reemerging Shanghai

Camp, pink, polarizing and utterly iconic, the Oriental Pearl TV Tower celebrates its fifteenth birthday this year.

A flamboyant statement of Shanghai’s aspirations to reclaim its position as Asia’s preeminent city, it’s a building which is difficult to be ambivalent about.

Satirist PJ O’Rourke described it as: “A Russian Orthodox church of the twenty-eighth century, or a launch vehicle for a pair of Houston Astrodomes, or a humongous shish kebab that lost everything but two onions in a barbeque fire.” But that certainly hasn’t stopped an unending stream of adoring tourists, photographers and writers lavishing it with attention over the past decade and a half.

Love it or loathe it, it undeniably has personality in spades. But then that was the purpose from the beginning – to make a statement. Its designer, Jiang Huancheng, who by profession is a structural engineer, first started work on the tower in 1987. He was the principal person in charge throughout its four years of construction and was on site every day until completion. Now aged 71 and still working, Jiang recalls his famous creation that has come to define a city reborn…

What were you aiming for in the design?
The owner, Gong Xueping, wanted to build a tower that was a symbol of Shanghai. Our proposal was unique; the other proposals were too similar to what had gone before. Most TV towers back then were similar to the one built in Wuhan in the 1970s. We call it a ‘single tube’ – they take after the first concrete tower in Stuttgart, Germany. Of course, we could have built a tower like that, but it would not have been unique, it would not have been a symbol.

Shanghai's Famous landmark as featured in the opening scene of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (this was removed for the Chinese mainland cinemetic release by Chinese censors...)

How do you set out to make a symbol?
We put photos of the Eiffel Tower, Sydney Opera House, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and the Statue of Liberty on the wall as our target. We wanted to touch that greatness and, if possible, go further. That was our aim.

Why pearls?
Chinese people like pearls. They’re shining, they’re beautiful. And Shanghai is just like a pearl, the Oriental pearl. It’s a shining example to the whole of China.

And the color?
We originally presented three color choices – silver white, light green and transparent glass. Mr. Gong didn’t like any of them and asked for alternatives. So I suggested red. Some architects criticized the red saying it was too strong. But Mr. Gong liked the red but asked us to make it a little lighter. And so it became pink.

We understand the tower’s design is based on a poem by the famous Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi?
That’s not exactly right. During the competition, the chief of the jury board said it reminded him of that poem. His comment became widely known and the tower’s association with the poem made the tower more popular among Chinese people and made them enjoy it more. But I didn’t originally have the poem in mind when I designed it, no.

Tell us about the construction. What were the complications?
The first problem was how to build the big inclined struts which support the tower. We almost lost the competition because of those struts because the jury board, including the main contractor, had never seen anything like it before. The way we did it was to build a steel cage, section by section, and then pour concrete inside.

The second problem was how to support the ‘pearls.’ The lower one is about 7,000 tons; the upper one about 10,000. So we built a ‘bowl’ for the struts to slot into to hold the lower one.

The third problem was the mast. You can use a helicopter to lift it section by section like the CN tower in Canada, but that way is very dangerous. So we made our own ‘robot’ to do it. We finished in 10 days and it was very safe.

Looking back, what are your feelings about the tower now?
I think it’s still good. Actually, we’re doing one now in Jakarta and we think, at least I think, it’s the optimization of the Shanghai tower.

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