The Canton Tower, formally the Guangzhou TV Astronomical and Sightseeing Tower, is a 602-metre multipurpose observation tower in the Haizhu District of Guangzhou, China, designed by Mark Hemel and Barbara Kuit of the firm Information Based Architecture with structural engineering by Arup. It was topped out in 2009 and became fully operational on September 30, 2010, in time for that year's Asian Games hosted in Guangzhou, and it briefly held the record as the world's tallest tower before being surpassed by Tokyo Skytree. The tower's twisted hyperboloid form, drawing on structural principles associated with the engineer Vladimir Shukhov, tapers and rotates along its height, and visitors can cross a 180-metre open-air skywalk through the narrowest point of the tower's waist; its rooftop observatory was, at completion, the world's highest outdoor observation deck. The tower also carries revolving restaurants and an LED lighting system engineered to use only a fraction of its maximum possible power draw.
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