London gives its verdict on the 2012 Eyeful Tower

Height of ambition: artist Anish Kapoor at City Hall with a model of his £19.1 million Orbit tower for the 2012 Games

London gave its verdict today on the ambitious and audacious design for a giant £19.1 million sculpture for the Olympic park.

Leading figures, including the head of the Arts Council, welcomed Anish Kapoor's proposal for a 115 metre-high asymmetric tower which will dominate the skyline and is intended to attract visitors to east London for years after the 2012 Olympic Games.

But there were many critics — led by architectural historian Gavin Stamp, who condemned it as a "ridiculous, over-inflated doodle".

The deep red design was chosen from among 56 submissions by artists asked for ideas to fulfil the wish of Mayor Boris Johnson for a structure to rival the Eiffel Tower as a lasting legacy of the London Games.

It is being principally funded by Britain's wealthiest man, Indian-born steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, and is named the ArcelorMittal Orbit.

Alan Davey, chief executive of the Arts Council, said it was great to have such a brilliant artist at the centre of the Olympic park.

"At first sight, it seems an eccentric Meccano-like jumble, but then you see the parabolic beauty characteristic of Kapoor. I think it's intriguing," he added.

But Jack Pringle, former president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, said he really wanted the Skylon sculpture created for the 1951 Festival of Britain.

"It was the first example of hi-tech architecture in the UK and inspired some of the greatest living architects," he said.

Former mayor Ken Livingstone said that although he would not demonstrate against the design he would not have commissioned it. "I can't imagine Boris wanting this for his enclave of Islington," he said.

John Biggs, a Labour member of the London Assembly whose constituency includes Stratford, said the park needed something such as an arts venue to show that the centre of London was moving east."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in