Absurdity, Allegory and China

I went by the CCTV HQ Building late Saturday afternoon just to make sure that it’s on-schedule. Though there’s still a lot of steel showing, I expect it will be impressively shiny and fully-sheathed, in full-Olympic dazzle, by August 8. I also expect that if there are any problems with the construction schedule, this site would be the one that would get an official dispensation from meeting the July 20th city-wide building deadline, when the clean-up gets underway. Sacred times call for equally sacred extensions. I do wonder if it will still be billboarded at its base when the world comes to town. It would be nice to get a look at this structure without the five-story skirt.

Here are few black-and-white thumbnails linked to larger versions. It was a beauty of an afternoon. There are others photos, some with actual color, at the Flickr site, and there will be more over the next few days.