Historical Background of the Millennium Dome - Essay Example

Introduction Architecture is one of the most prolific examples of preserving history. Through the ages, the architectural paradigms have been the benchmark of advancing knowledge and evolving socio-cultural values of the societies across the globe. The monuments, palace and unique structural designs become the major identity factors for the posterity. It is for this reasons that the countries strive to mark occasions and events by constructing landmark building. Millennium dome is one such building which was built in south of London, United Kingdom, to mark the arrival of third millennium. The Dome was not only envisaged to be a unique landmark but a huge tourist attraction that would reflect the financial success of the project. Historical background and significance The Millennium Dome was a pet project of the labour government of UK. It was initiated by John Major of conservative party and taken over in 1997 when Tony Blair of labour party, came to power. Blair made the Millennium Dome as the most favoured project that would herald the success of labour party and subsequently that of Blair’s vision of putting Britain’s architectural marvel on the world map as the most celebrated building of the millennium. Blair had claimed that Dome would be ‘a triumph of confidence over cynicism, boldness over blandness, excellence over mediocrity’ (BBC, 2001). The circular Dome is constructed over an area of 186 acre on Greenwich Peninsula with twelve 100m high support towers that signify Greenwich Mean Time or twelve months of the year. The diameter of the dome is 365 days corresponding to the days in a year (CMS committee, 1997). It is one of the largest Domes of the world. It is the most famous landmark of London that celebrates millennium. Richard Rogers was the chief architect and Buro Harold, the engineer who realized the dream of constructing the world’s most recognizable architectural delight. Millennium Dome is not exactly a dome but resembles a canopy because of the pillars that support the whole structure. The huge space under the canopy is designed to hold mammoth events and festivals for people. It was opened to public on 1 January 2000 with large number of attractions and exhibits which were sponsored by hoards of corporate giants and continued throughout the year. The year long exhibition was supposed to showcase the talent of Britain in the myriad areas of art and culture. The Millennium Dome Show was held 999 times during the entire year. Despite best efforts by the Millennium commission to rope in corporate bodies to make it a success, the subsequent years saw drastic decline in revenue. It had about 6.5 million visitors as against 12 million visitors anticipated by the Millennium commission and dismally falling short of the target. Thus, the Millennium Dome, visualized as a major sports and entertainment venue, failed to deliver the desired results (Carling & Seely, 1998). On December, 2001, Meridian Delta, backed by American billionaire, Phillips Anschutz, was selected as the main contracting body to develop the Dome as state of the art venue for sports and entertainment events with offices, shops and amusement park. Leased to O2 Plc, it was formally renamed O2 Arena on 31 May 2005 and celebrated the opening with Singer Bon Jovi, musical extravaganza. Literature review The millennium Dome was the British Government’s largest project to welcome 21st century. Experts agree that success criteria are vague as different groups and individuals have different perception of factors that contribute to the success of the project (Cleland & Ireland, 2004, p2). Lim & Mohammad have asserted that ‘for those involved with a project, project success is normally thought of as the achievement of some pre-determined project goals’ (Lim & Mohamed, 1999, p244). Sydney Opera House is a prime example where this theory has failed to impact the final outcome of the project. The Opera House had far exceeded the initial budget and timeline but the gigantic success of its opening had overshadowed the lapses (Thomsett, 2002). Cammack says that Millennium Dome, despite meeting the timeframe and slight over-budgeting was considered as a failure primarily because it did not come up to the expectation of the common man in grandeur (Cammack, 2005). Duncan argues that it is because the project is an amalgamation of various factors and issues and its success has to be considered as a positive outcome of each of the factors or goals. In other words, ‘project success requires a combination of product success (service, result or outcome)’ (Duncan , 2004). Atkinson asserts that in the contemporary environment of fast evolving socio-economic values, the project success needs to be considered from two different perspectives; organization and stakeholders’ view and reflects an integrated outcome of the different views (Atkinson, 1999, p338). The integrated outcome promotes sustainability, reliability and feasibility of the project. It is true that projects are ‘almost exclusively concerned with change – with knocking down the old and building up the new’ (Baguley, 1995, p8). But it is important that Project manager must ensure that changes are made only when necessary else it is doomed to fail (Kerzner, 2001, p158). Analysis of cost, benefit and risks of the project The total cost of the project including the Millennium Exhibition was £758 million that was split amongst four sources: £399 million from the National Lottery Distribution Fund, granted by Millennium Commission; £150 from sponsorship; 194 from commercial revenue like ticket sales, merchandising and licensing; and £15 from disposal proceeds. The operating company, New Millennium Experience Company Limited was the main body that was overseeing and organizing exhibition and events during the millennium year (2000). The Company had anticipated around 12 million visitors in the millennium year but failed to get more than 6.5 million visitors during the year. Though the Dome was the most favored tourist spot, critics affirmed that the government had deliberately escalated the forecast in order to win the approval of the parliament for the highly unrealistic budget. The Jubilee line extension, ‘essentially built part of the project has ‘has cost around £3.5 billion, all public money, and large sums have also been spent on services intended to supply the supposed new town that was planned for Greenwich. Further millions are now being spent on keeping the Dome open’ (Socialist Review, 2000). The waste of huge public money has been a major concern for the critics. Risk assessment of the project and sustainable development Millennium Dome was widely seen as the most contemporary state of the art venue for showcasing the British cultural heritage and history. It was also presumed to be used as a platform for educating the masses vis-à-vis evolving socio-cultural and environmental paradigm. It was also considered to set the example of following the ethical practice and corporate social responsibilities through numerous activities for the welfare of te communities at large. While the initial projections for its success were considerably inflated, the subsequent decrease in revenue was unanticipated and significantly increased the risks to carry forward the project, without comprising on the cost and credibility. The various structural flaws in the design, which became apparent during the large musical events, were huge add-on expenditures that made it highly unsustainable. Social accountability The changing environment of values and work ethics has necessitated that the organizations must be responsive to the impact that their decisions, actions and behaviour have on the people at large. It followed sustainable development practices by following well defined environment policy of conserving and preserving environment through effective energy usage and waste management. It believed in proactive participation in the community development work by forging alliances with bodies and voluntary agencies and contributes towards the development process. During 2004 Christmas, part of the Dome was used as a shelter for the homeless, organized by the charity, Crisis. Conclusion The Dome is a representative of technological advancements and modernization process that has brought in a new set of values which are global in essence but culturally unique in content. While the intention of the government was noble, the implementation and planning was full of flaws and failed to sustain the initial euphoria of relative success. The handing over the Dome to private enterprises has seen a turn-around in the fortune, that should serve as an example to the government and all its future projects that have public money involved. Reference Atkinson, Roger. (1999). Project management: cost, time and quality, two best guesses and a phenomenon, its time to accept other success criteria. International Journal of Project Management Vol. 17, No. 6, pp 337-342. BBC News . (15 February, 2001). ‘Dome woes haunt Blair’. Available from: . [Accessed 24 August, 2009]. Baguley, Phil. (1995). Managing Successful Projects: A guide for every manager. Pitman Publishing, London UK. Cammack D. (2005). Principles of Project Management - 1st session. MSc in Project Management, Lancaster University. Carling, Philippa & Seely, Antony. (1998). The Millennium Dome. House of Common library. Available from; [Accessed 24 August, 2009]. Cleland, David S & Ireland, Lewis R. (2004). Project Manager’s Portable Handbook. 2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill. USA. Culture, Media & Sport Committee. (1997). The Millennium Dome. 11 December 1997 HC 340-II 1997-98 Q1. Duncan, William R. (2004). Defining and Measuring Project Success, Project Management Partners. Available from: [Accessed 24 August, 2009]. Kerzner, Harold. (2001). Strategic planning for project management using a project management maturity model. Wiley & Sons, New York. Lim, C S & Mohamed, M Z. (1999). Criteria of project success: an exploratory re-examination. International Journal of Project Management Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 243-248, [Electronic] Socialist Review. (October, 2000). From Concorde to Dome. Available from: [Accessed 24 August, 2009]. Thomsett, Rob. (2002). Radical Project Management. Prentice Hall, USA. Read More