Absurdity, Allegory and China

Curious article in the Shanghai Daily today (h/t @niubi on Twitter), reporting on a Beijing News article regarding repairs to the TVCC building, the burned and lesser brother/neighbor of the iconic CCTV Bldg. This has been expected since Rem Koolhaas stated in a WSJ piece The Sky’s No Longer the Limit back in May 2009 that “they are simply rebuilding it as it was, because there was no structural damage.” I also wondered about this a few days after the fire, and wrote about it here and, later, here. Three days after the fire I suggested that

There is now an odd mojo-y smoky shadow hanging over the place that will not interpret well though the Chinese filter. Can you imagine a great rush to book into a hotel with 44 floors that has been through what appears on endless videos as a barely contained eruption of Hell, even though the containment might have everything to do with the superior engineering of the construction.

While the rebuilding (“repairs”) is not a surprise, the Shanghai Daily is also reporting that it will still be a five-star hotel.

After repairs, the building will retain the original look, according to Beijing Urban Construction Group. It will accommodate a five-star hotel, a 1,500-seat theatre and other support facilities as designed. The futuristic-looking 5-billion-yuan (US$735 million) CCTV complex features a pair of enormous, leaning buildings of black glass and steel. The fire in February engulfed an adjacent 159-meter, 44-story building that was to house a luxury Mandarin Oriental Hotel, which was only weeks away from opening.

What is noteworthy in the Shanghai Daily piece is that the Mandarin Oriental Hotel (MO) is referred to in the past tense. Does this mean that the MO has managed to back out of the deal, and that there will be another hotel company stepping in? I cannot imagine that the MO would still be involved with this project, seeing as how the partner/owner, China Central Television, was responsible for its destruction. In February 2009 Mandarin Oriental employees, along with their families who had moved to Beijing, were nearing the opening day when everything went up in fire and smoke. Subsequently the families moved out of Beijing.

It will be interesting to see who ends up with their name on the side of this one. If it is still the Mandarin Oriental I would be surprised. With the images of the building so publicly and wildly exploding still vivid, and with so many videos of the conflagration posted on the internet, I don’t see people queuing up to reserve rooms. If I were to bet, I’d put my money on a state-run five-star hotel. Besides the obvious jinx factor, what international company in their right mind would want to partner up with CCTV on this one? But if it ends up still being the Mandarin Oriental, you can bet they cut a sweet deal, since CCTV would probably do anything not to have this look as bad as it is.
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Another curious bit in the Shanghai Daily article:

More than 20 people have been arrested over the accident, including staff from CCTV, the fireworks company, the building’s designer, builder, supervisor and suppliers.

They will be tried in two groups, with the first batch due to go to trial before mid February and the rest around March, according to earlier reports.

If staff from the” building’s designer” have been arrested, does this mean someone (or more) from OMA is going to be on trial shortly? Anyone know anything about this?
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Update: January 26, 2010, 8:45 PM (+8 UTC)

The article in the Shanghai Daily stated that staff from the “building’s designer” were involved in the upcoming trials. A spokesman for the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) has assured me that no personnel from OMA or ECADI are involved in the upcoming trials related to the TVCC fire last February.