Architecture of the Millennium Dome

One of the most admired and hated buildings of the late 20th century, the Millennium Dome's lofty goals were also its downfall. It is one of 200 projects in the United Kingdom created to mark the turn of the millennium. Altogether it was a £2,000,000,000.00 investment. The dome featured such exhibits as a walk-through body and a huge model of a beating heart. Critics called it "crass" and overly politically correct. The dome is a showcase of the best Britain has to offer the world. Unfortunately, not enough of the world is interested in what Britain has to offer to make the venture profitable. As of February, 2001 it was expected to attract 5,000,000 visitors a year; less than half the number needed to make the venture profitable, but still more than any other British tourist attraction. Initial admission was pegged at £20, a price some considered prohibitive for ordinary people, but one that the Millennium Commission decided was necessary to build the structure without taxpayer money. Even before the Millennium Dome opened the usual politicians chided the project as a boondoggle. But the chorus of naysayers was joined by a list of rather rational people who also smelled doom for the dome. It didn't long to prove them right. 12 to 17 million people were expected each year. The reality was far different. The dome fell hundreds of millions of pounds short of its goal in short order. Dome defenders say it brought a measure of prosperity to a bleak swath of land along the Thames. To be sure, the project created 2,000 construction jobs plus thousands more to keep the affair running. It also cleaned up and put to use 300 acres of contaminated real estate and brought billions of tourist dollars south of the city. But its long-term impact has yet to be felt, and its merits still debatable. In time we shall see if the Millennium Dome finally becomes a proud addition to the London cityscape, or a faded memory of boondoggles past.

The fabric of the dome is designed to last 25 years.
October, 1998 - The New Millennium Experience Company raises a public furor when it tries to trademark the London skyline. They withdraw their application.
31 December, 1999 - The Millennium Dome opens to the public.
4 March, 2000 - Damien Nash becomes the 1,000,000th dome visitor.
May, 2000 - The Dome gets a £29,000,000.00 loan from the National Lottery to continue running.
July, 2000 - An analysis by PriceWaterhouseCoopers concludes the Dome is financially insolvent.
September, 2000 - The Dome gets a £49,000,000.00 loan from the National Lottery to continue running.
November, 2000 - A government report slams the dome's operators as too inexperienced to run such a massive operation, and places the blame on NMEC's inability to control expenses.
December 31, 2000 - A crowd of 37,000 people attend the dome's closing celebration which is followed by a massive 12-hour rave on the grounds of the complex.
2001 - The British government tries to sell the dome. One consortium wanted to turn it into a business park.
18 December, 2001 - The dome lives! Virgin Radio reports that England’s Millennium Dome will be turned into an entertainment and sports venue. The British government came to an agreement with a multinational group of investors to lease the structure until the year 3000.
26 May, 2002 - BBC Radio Five is reporting that the British government is considering a plan to give the Millennium Dome away to a private company for free. In return, the government would get a share of the operating profits.
26 May, 2002 - Ten minutes later - News Direct 97.3 reports the BBC Radio Five report is wrong. We'll see what happens.