China ties in the "World's Tallest Building" sweepstakes

[thatcrazycajun]

CNN.com informs us here that as of today, the Shanghai World Financial Center has been "topped off," completing construction on one of only two 101-story office towers in the world (the Red Chinese government's perennial bête-noire, Taipei, Taiwan, has the other).

Look at the artist's rendering on the tower's Wikipedia page and tell me: Am I the only one who looks at this thing and sees a gigantic bottle opener? (ADDENDUM, 3:44 p.m.: It occurs to me I may be severely dating myself; I doubt more than half my friends list is old enough to remember when beer, sodas etc. came in bottles you needed this sort of tool to open, before screw-tops became common. Am I incorrect?)

Comments

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Am I the only one who looks at this thing and sees a gigantic bottle opener?

Well, certainly not now...

[gorgeousgary]

We just said the same thing...

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Anybody get the idea that modern architects are running out of ideas?

[gorgeousgary]

Oh, I don't know. Having an architect wake up one morning and say, "Gee, I feel like building a 101-story bottle opener" sounds decently creative to me.

Or at least it's an improvement over simply crumpling up a piece of aluminum foil and building the result. (Yes, I'm talking to you, Mr. Gehry...)

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

Agreement there. Still, this makes me want to find the drawings for the buildings I designed when I was eleven years old and upgrade them for comparison purposes.

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

There are also a few notable "What Were They Thinking?" buildings in the DC area (the one that comes to mind is one with a big spherical indent that lends itself to such nicknames as "The Tid-E-Bowl Building").

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

I agree with the first-impression.
But-then, I'm probably 15+years older than you are, even.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

...or a super-sleek Dustbuster!

Stupid question time

[(Anonymous)]

Does anyone know what the square hole in the somewhat stylizedly roundish peg (for an admittedly cubist definition of "round) of is for, other than "because it makes our building resemble a 101 story bottle opener" (and in China, those may still be very much a daily-use item) or "so people like you could ask stupid running-dog imperialist questions" (throwing "capitalist" around China these days is a sword of two edges).