The Bitexco Financial Tower Conspiracy Theory

It's a 74 storey tower with 3 basements, wait, it's a 68 storey tower with 7 basements. It's the tallest building in Vietnam according to Wikipedia on their 'Tallest Buildings in Vietnam' page but wait again, that fact is quickly usurped by the Wiki page for Bitexco Financial Tower which claims the Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Tower to be the tallest, but it's not finished yet. Depending on the websites you visit the stats vary accordingly. It's the architectural equivalent of penis measurement depending on whether you count floors or metres or whether you count floors below ground the same as floors above ground. I shudder to think how the inverted pyramid design, submitted for the Chicago Tribune Tower Design Competition in 1922 would have been counted, had it been built - a pyramidal negative space buried deep into the earth.

But on Bitexco in Saigon one thing is clear, it will not be the tallest building in Vietnam, it will only be the tallest building in Ho Chi Minh city. The tallest building in Vietnam designation seems to be owned by Hanoi, now and for the foreseeable future. And that's where methinks a conspiracy has taken hold. A conspiracy to nip Saigon's newest phallic symbol in the bud so to speak (the tower is fashioned as a lotus bud) to keep Hanoi on top of the building boom around here. Take a look at the difference between the architectural drawings and the actual building. Doesn't it seem as if a few planned storeys have been lopped off the top? I certainly think so - and various accounts about the development of the building support that. I wonder who will be arriving on the helipad for the grand opening, since only military helicopters are allowed in Vietnam - the Americans again? Doubtful, although the building's architect, Carlos Zapata is based in New York. Conspiracy? You decide.