Treating Iconic projects rationally

【Abstract】As there exists representative projects in a huge number of which， some have been successful， and some have faced a lot of problems during and after the process.

Nowadays every country， even every city has its own landmark constructions called “Iconic project”. This form of projects is often paid great attention by the government and the whole society. In this article， I would like to focus on the iconic projects through analyzing and discussing certain success or failure iconic constructions， and then just to lay out my own standpoint.

1 Current situation of Iconic Projects

With the accelerate development of global economy in today’s society， more and more countries even cities in small scare show interests in the landmark buildings， being exactly， the image constructions.

Iconic Projects exist with the history of human development. As known to all， there were a lot of architectural wonders in the ancient world since the beginning of our human beings’ history and some of which are still almost the symbols in their countries with their special significances.

It is well known that “Iconic” means relating to or having the characteristics on an icon. Thus， the iconic projects mean the projects with certain iconic characteristics. However， “Iconic Projects” should not simply be interpreted as icon. The original role of iconic constructions is landmark which is the significant sign regarded by people of a city.

2 Actual cases exist as Iconic Projects

2.1 Success cases of Iconic Projects

Generally， when standing in front， each iconic building is designed and constructed perfectly， which will generate the illusion to people that all the iconic buildings are truly successful.

Take the Emirates Stadium in London as an example. It is England’s third largest football ground with a seating capacity of 60，000.This stadium is succeeded that it gained a lot of reputations from the professionals in some authorities.

2.1.1 The contractor. With the great reputation in construction and particularly accomplished in managing supply chain.

2.1.2 The client. The client should decide time， cost and performance.

2.1.3 Relationships.

2.1.4 Build ability and realistic cost budgets.

2.1.5 Resolved away from the scrutiny of the press and public.

2.1.6 Tight contract programme

2.2 Failure cases of Iconic Projects

2.2.1 The examples of failure

（1）The Millennium Stadium opened in June 1999 as the largest sports venue in UK at that time. However， throughout the whole process， it failed with the main difficulty in cost overrun as it lost exceeding ￡196m， which means that the stadium could not meet the balance as it had been expected.

（2）The Wembley Stadium is the National Stadium of England with the largest capacity of 90，000 seat venue. As such an iconic construction， Wembley Stadium shows its drawbacks in cost overrun and days delay. And also， it is puzzled by the political dimension.

（3）The Holy rood Inquiry was delayed， which led to the obstacles for the following steps. Therefore， there certainly exist the problems of cost and days. Furthermore， because the final criterion of bid was not clear enough， the openness of the project related to commercial bid is lack of transparency.

3.2.2 The difficulties of failure

As the cases above， we conclude the main reasons of failure for iconic projects below:

（1）Cost over-run. Before the start of project， the contractors should pay attention to the budget， as the accuracy and the reflecting range of the budget will do great effect during the project even if a tiny deviation.

（2）Days delay. As the iconic projects come down to a series of design problems， the delay of on-stream time might happen easily.

（3）Lack of transparency in the project. Transparency means bringing the commercial finance into the open.

（4）Political dimension. Sometimes， political dimension will press to the projects as most of the iconic projects might symbolize the principle of certain polity.

3 My opinion on Iconic Projects

We consider that to record today’s history through the architectural constructions might be the very meanings for the prevailing fashion of landmark buildings. That everywhere over the world has this phenomenon， and there is no exception for China.

3.1 The overview of Iconic Projects in China

“The Times” in London chose the world’s top 10 major construction projects. China owned exclusively three seats on the list from the particular advantage of Olympic Game， they are: the main venue of the Olympic National Stadium， the site of the new CCTV building and the Capital Airport Terminal Three.

3.2 The analyses of success or failure on Iconic Projects

3.2.1 The advantages of Iconic Projects

（1）Iconic projects show the symbol of financial resources.

（2）Iconic projects will spur the economy.

（3）Iconic projects help the local gover nments revolve some social issues.

3.2.2 The disadvantages of Iconic Projects

（1）Exorbitant input of finance.

（2）Over-use of resources.

（3）Blind pursuit of quantities.

（4）Negligence of quality.

（5）Effectiveness for a given period of time.

（6）Limitations of commercial benefits.

（7）Infraction of sustainable development.

（8）Distorted understanding of the iconic projects.

4 Conclusion

The debate on whether Iconic projects are virtually certain to fail could not be absolutely established.

Based on the analysis on success or failure of iconic projects， in my personal opinion， I prefer to hold a negative attitude about the results of iconic projects.

4.1 We could not be blind to measure the vitality of iconic projects via the economic inputs.

4.2 We could not be resisted only with respect to the short term benefits.

4.3 We could not define the iconic projects absolutely.

Reference：

[1]David Lowe. (2005). “Commercial Management of Projects: Defining the Discipline” University of Manchester， Blackwell Publishing: 298-306

[2]David Lowe. (2008). “Football Stadia Case Studies” Blackwell Publishing.

[3]Jayne Merkel. (2005). “Eero Saarinen”. Phaidon.

[4]Michael E， Porter. (2004). “Competitive Advantage” London: 63.

[5]Rt Hon Lord. (Sep 2004). “The Holyrood Inquiry” Scottish Parliamentary Corporate.