Beijing landmark finished -- on the outside

Rem Koolhaas's design for the new CCTV building in Beijing has been one of the most hailed, criticized, and generally talked-about buildings in the world since Koolhaus won a design competition in 2002. The New Yorker's Paul Goldberger recently called the new headquarters for Chinese broadcasters "a dazzling re-invention of the skyscraper," but the building has also been damned as overscale -- it's got nearly as much office space as the Pentagon -- and it has long been plagued by delays and budgeting issues. The building also inspired a heated debate on the ethics involved when architects' have authoritarian regimes as their clients.

Anyway, it's done now -- or at least the facade is, just beating the Olympics deadline:

Via an impressed David Basulto, at Arch Daily.

The interior is expected to be finished by the end of the year. Fun fact from Goldberger's New Yorker article on the Beijing skyline, published in June: Some Chinese have taken to calling the CCTV building "Big Shorts":