January 2012 Tube Products International
9
business & market news
ArcelorMittal supplies £16mn of steel tubing
for Olympic observation tower
The ArcelorMittal Orbit is a 115m (377ft)
high observation tower built using
tubes in the Olympic Park in Stratford,
London. The steel sculpture is Britain’s
largest piece of public art, and is a
permanent, lasting legacy of London’s
hosting of the 2012 Summer Olympics,
assisting in the post-Olympics
regeneration of the Stratford area. Sited
between the Olympic Stadium and the
Aquatics Centre, it allows visitors to
view the whole Olympic Park from two
observation platforms.
Orbit was designed by Anish Kapoor
in collaboration with engineer Cecil
Balmond. Announced on 31 March
2010, the tower was expected to be
completed by December 2011 at the
latest. The project came about after
Mayor of London Boris Johnson and
Olympics minister Tessa Jowell decided
in 2008 that the Olympic Park needed
“something extra”.
Designers were asked for ideas for an
“Olympic tower” of at least 100m (330ft),
and Orbit was the unanimous choice
from various proposals considered by a
nine person advisory panel.
The project is expected to cost
£19.1mn, with £16mn of that coming
from the involvement of Britain’s richest
man, the steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal,
chairman of the ArcelorMittal steel
company, with the balance of £3.1mn
coming from the London Development
Agency. The official name of the
sculpture, ArcelorMittal Orbit, combines
the name of Mr Mittal’s company, as
chief sponsor, with Orbit, the original
working title of Kapoor and Balmond’s
design.
Both Kapoor and Balmond believe
Orbit represents a radical advance in
the architectural field of combining
sculpture and structural engineering,
and believe that it combines both
stability and instability in a work that
visitors can engage with and experience,
via an incorporated spiral walkway. The
structure has been both praised and
criticised for its bold design, while it has
also been criticised as a vanity project,
of questionable lasting use or merit as a
public art project.
Mr Mittal’s involvement in the project
came about after a chance meeting with
Mr Johnson in a cloakroom in Davos
in January 2009, as they were on their
way to separate dinner engagements; in
a conversation that took “45 seconds”
he pitched the idea to Mr Mittal, who
immediately agreed to supply the steel.
Mr Mittal later said of his involvement,
“I never expected that this was going
to be such a huge project. I thought it
was just the supply of some steel, a
thousand tonnes or so, and that would
be it. But then we started working with
artists and I realised that the object was
not just to supply steel but to complete
the whole project. It took us almost 15
months of negotiation and discussion.”
Mr Johnson has said that, “In reality,
ArcelorMittal has given much more than
the steel.”
Anish
Kapoor’s
Orbit was officially
announced as the
winner on 31 March
2010. According to
The Guardian
, Orbit
was chosen from a
final short-list of three,
with Orbit beating one
design submitted by
Antony Gormley, and
another submitted by
the architectural firm
Caruso St John.
The £16mn to be
funded by ArcelorMittal
consists of a £10mn
cash donation and
£6mn in underwriting
of capital costs, which
could be potentially
recovered from profits
generated after the
games. According to
Mr Johnson, the cost
of the project would
be recouped after
the games through
the private hire of a
dining area at the top
of the tower, predicting
it would become a
“corporate money-
making venture”.
Mr Mittal said he was immediately
interested in the project after he
remembered the excitement that
surrounded the announcement that
London had won the Olympic bid. He
saw it as an opportunity to leave a
lasting legacy for London, to showcase
the “unique qualities of steel” and to play
a role in the regeneration of Stratford.
Mr Mittal said of his involvement in
the project, “I live in London – I’ve
lived here since 1997 – and I think
it’s a wonderful city. This project is
an incredible opportunity to build
something really spectacular for
London, for the Olympic Games and
something that will play a lasting role in
the legacy of the Games.”
ArcelorMittal
– Luxembourg
