Sometimes I just get lucky. Yesterday was one of those days. I had decided to go find Taipei 101 and check it out, since I’ve never had time to do so before. I had lots of other things to do, so I didn’t get around to going out until early afternoon. Before I left, I thought I’d look up some information about Taipei 101. A good site with Taipei 101 info is the wikipedia at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei_101
Among other things, it talks about the CTBUH (Counsel on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat) ranking Taipei 101 as the tallest building in the world earlier this year. I knew Taipei 101 was the tallest, but learned a lot more about the rankings, criteria, and history as a result of my reading.
So imagine my surprise when I show up at Taipei 101 to find a press conference set up in the shopping mall. There was a whole area with nice chairs, lots of TV crews, reporters, and a slick presentation (big screen video and all) about the building. And what exactly was this press conference all about? It was the official award ceremony for designating Taipei 101 as the tallest building in the world! What great timing!
Not only did I get to go see the world’s tallest building, but I got to be there for the first ever on-site presentation of the CTBUH Tallest Building In The World Award. The award was presented by none other than the Chair of the CTBUH, Ron Klemencic.
While I watched the presentation (and took some pictures, of course), I had an idea. What don’t I see if I can interview the guy? The mayor and other local dignitaries split (and they probably wouldn’t have wanted to talk to me anyway), but I figured Mr. Klemencic might enjoy talking to someone fluent in English for a few moments.
I prepared some questions and managed to get about 10 minutes to talk with him one-on-one about tall buildings. I asked questions that explored the relationship between tall buildings and economic freedom. He had never been asked those kinds of questions before, but the conversation was interesting anyway. If I get the time, I’ll do an article on it (maybe some libertarian rag will publish it?!?).
I love it when stuff like this just ‘works out’…
V-