Rebuilding Construction Begins on OMA's Charred Mandarin Hotel in Beijing

In October of last year, then-OMA employee Ole Scheeren said he believed that Beijing’s Mandarin Hotel/CCTV office, which he and Rem Koolhaas had designed but was severely damaged by a massive fire in early 2009 before it had even opened, was still salvageable. Turns out he might be right. Crews have begun working on the charred remains of the skyscraper, planning to remove most of the steel and decorative portions of the building and reconstructing it based on the original plans using its still-intact and relatively healthy concrete bones.