ArcelorMittal Orbit, Olympic Park In Stratford, London

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".
Rowan Moore of The Guardian questioned if Orbit was going to be anything more than a folly, or whether it would be as eloquent as the Statue of Liberty. He speculated that the project might mark the time when society stops using large iconic projects as a tool for lifting areas out of deprivation. He questioned its ability to draw people's attention to Stratford after the Games, in a similar manner to the successes of the Angel of the North or the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. He also questioned the piece's ability to strike a chord like the Angel, which he believed had at least "created a feelgood factor and sense of pride" in Gateshead, or whether it would simply become one of the "many more unloved rotting wrecks that no one has the nerve to demolish". He postulated that the addition of stairs and a lift made Orbit less succinct than Kapoor's previous successful works, while ultimately he said "hard to see what the big idea is, beyond the idea of making something big".