CCTV Headquarters Building

CCTV Headquarters Building

The CCTV Headquarters Building, located in Beijing's Central Business District, includes the CCTV Headquarters, the Television Cultural Center, the Service Building, and the Celebration Square. It was designed by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), led by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and German architect Ole Scheeren. The building’s avant-garde architecture has been selected by TIME magazine as one of the World's Top 10 Architectural Wonders in 2007, alongside Beijing’s Contemporary MOMA and the National Stadium. The initial construction budget for the CCTV Headquarters was 5 billion yuan, which eventually soared to nearly 20 billion. The design fee paid to OMA reached as high as 350 million yuan, averaging about 630 yuan per square meter. The North Auxiliary Building was severely damaged by a fire during the Lantern Festival on February 9, 2009. Restoration work began at the end of October 2009, and after completion, it successfully passed inspection. CCTV Sports Channel was the first to relocate to the new site in the East Third Ring Road on June 5, 2012, and broadcast the London Olympics from the new location. The CCTV New Headquarters Building won the highest honor — the Best Tall Building Worldwide award. In April 2014, the China Contemporary Top 10 Buildings Jury Committee shortlisted twenty buildings from over 1,000 landmark structures across China, evaluating them based on four criteria: era, scale, artistry, and influence. From these, the final Top 10 Contemporary Buildings were selected. The CCTV Headquarters Building was among the shortlisted finalists.