Olympic Orbit tower unveiled NEWS
The looping red steel tower that stands beside London's 2012 Olympic Stadium is being officially unveiled on Friday.
Designed by Turner Prize winner Anish Kapoor, the completed steel tower is located at the heart of the London 2012 park.
Built for visitors to climb to the top to see panoramic views across London, the tower will be open from the end of July.
The tower, named ArcelorMittal Orbit, is expected to become one of the capital's most popular visitor attractions, hoping to bring 1 million visitors per year to Stratford's Olympic Park.
At 115 metres, the tower wins the title of the tallest sculpture in the UK, being twice the height of London's Nelson's Column.
Costing £22.7m to build, the tangled steel tower is made of 63% recycled steel. The Orbit incorporates the five Olympic rings into its structure.
'We wanted to make something that was kind of a deconstruction of the tower,' Kapoor said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
'Towers are almost always symmetrical,' he continued, saying the Orbit's twisted loops were 'the refusal of a singular image'.
'The ArcelorMittal Orbit was built to give the forthcoming games a landmark' said Kapoor.
London Mayor Boris Johnson has described the tower as 'a piece of truly spectacular modern British art', going on to say it would 'boggle the minds' of the Romans.
The structure weighs 2,000 tonnes and visitors will be able to go up to the top of its 35 storeys by lift and have the option of walking down its spiralling staircase to the ground.
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