The mayor of Taichung has temporarily pulled the plug on the Taiwan Tower, saying that he would rather pay the penalty for breaking the contract than pay the project's projected cost, which has risen from NT$8M (US$253M) to NT$15B (US$476M). Billed as the "Taiwanese version of the Eiffel tower," it was one of the biggest projects to date for rising Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto.
According to the Taipei Times, mayor Lin "said that the Taiwan Tower, a major project pushed by his predecessor, three-term mayor Jason Hu, is problematic in terms of design, structural complexity and safety." In a city hall meeting on Monday, Lin announced he would organize a team to review it and come up with a replacement for the kind of preposterous and amazing jumble of poles, which looks like a god-sized game of KerPlunk before the marbles are poured in.
Construction has yet to begin on the project, which Fujimoto won an international design competition for in 2011. Planned for the Taichung Gateway economic and trade park, it was set to have a tree-covered observational platform, "environmental quality monitoring stations," a large public atrium, and a restaurant.
· Taichung mayor balks at high cost of Taiwan Tower [Taipei Times]