CNN names Vietnam tower among world’s construction icons

The news website ranked the tower, located in District 1, seventh on the list of the buildings which are “among the most iconic, representing their designers and their cities as memorably as anything else.”

The structures “deserve browser time” even though “[they] aren't the tallest buildings in the world, they aren't the prettiest buildings in the world, they aren't even the most successful.”

CNN put together the list in collaboration with A. Eugene Kohn, founder and chairman of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF), one of the world's largest architectural firms, and Michael Greene, KPF principal.

Built at a cost of US$270 million, Bitexco Financial Tower stands 262 meters high and boasts 68 floors, making it the tallest building in town.

It has a heli-pad on the 52nd floor, which extends 22 meters out from the main structure, and an observation deck on the 49th floor where visitors can get a 360-degree view of HCMC.

The tower was designed to represent Vietnam's national flower, the lotus, and to “characterize the beauty and growth of Ho Chi Minh City,”CNN said.

“It's ambitious and in your face, much like its host city. No surprise, given it was designed by award-winning Ecuadorian architect Carlos Zapata,” the site added.

At the top of the 2013 list were Empire State Building in New York, China Central Television Headquarters in Beijing, Commerzbank Headquarters in Frankfurt, The Shard in London, Elephant Tower in Bangkok, and Chrysler Building in New York.

Bitexco Financial Tower was once selected by CNNGo, a CNN travel and lifestyle website, as one of the world’s 20 most iconic skyscrapers in 2011, a year after its inauguration. It stood at number 5 on that list.

The skyscraper held the title of Vietnam’s tallest building from October 2010 to October 2011 when the 336-meter Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Tower, with 72 floors, was inaugurated in Hanoi.