ArcelorMittal Orbit, Olympic Park In Stratford, London

Jonathan Glancey of The Guardian described Orbit as "Olympian in ambition" and a "fusion between striking art and daring engineering", and said that, the Aquatics Centre apart, it represented the architecturally striking Joker in the pack, given that the rest of the landscaping and architecture for the Games "promises little to get excited about". He believed it would become a "genuine eyecatcher" for the Olympics television coverage, with its extraordinary form being a "strange and enticing marriage of sorts" between the Eiffel Tower and the un-built early Soviet era Tatlin's Tower, with the biblical Tower of Babel as "best man".
Describing it as looking like a "catastrophic collision between two cranes", the Daily Mail reported how the structure had been immediately been nicknamed the 'Eyeful Tower', as well as reflecting specific internet comments of it being 'a rollercoaster that costs £19million a go', or that it resembled 'twisted spaghetti', 'horrific squiggles' and 'Meccano on crack'. The Times also reported the description "Godzilla of public art".
With regard to its potential as a lasting visitor attraction, Mark Brown of The Guardian reflected on the mixed fortunes of other large symbolic London visitor attractions, the popular but loss making Thames Tunnel, the Skylon tower, dismantled on the orders of Winston Churchill, and the successful London Eye.
Tom Dyckhoff of The Times, while calling it a "a gift to the tabloids" and a "giant Mr. Messy", questioned whether the Olympic site needed another pointless icon, postulating whether Orbit would stand the test of time like the London Eye and become a true icon to match the Eiffel Tower, or a hopeless white elephant. Suggesting the project had echoes of Tatlin's Monument to the Third International, and especially Constant Nieuwenhuys' utopian city New Babylon, he asked whether Orbit was just as revolutionary or possessed the same ideological purpose, or whether it was merely "a giant advert for one of the world’s biggest multinationals, sweetened with a bit of fun".