When the Suzhou Chinaing Real Estate Company commissioned British architecture practice RMJM to design The Gate to the East, they were hoping for the Eastern answer to Paris’s Arc de Triomphe. Instead, they found the £445 million skyscraper more closely resembled a pair of “giant underpants”.

The Gate to the East, which is scheduled to be completed later this year, will be the largest gate-shaped structure in the world. Although the initial concept was well-received, and even praised, a recent slew of online criticism has raised doubts and cast an unfortunate shadow over the “dramatic iconic ‘gateway’.” Comments and criticisms ranged from euphemistic to downright ugly.

Is it an arch or just plain pants?

Read the front page of the Shanghai Daily. Xinhua were less subtle, and ran the following headline,

New giant tower branded ‘pants’.

It wasn’t only the media top dogs that offered their opinions, and many bloggers took to the Internet to express their concerns.

This should be called the Pants of the East, not the Gate of the East.

Said one, and another suggested that the mere act of passing between the “legs” would be humiliating, “like being forced to crawl between someone else’s legs.” Others took it a step further, noting that London’s Gherkin would fit snugly inside the gate.

Several other bloggers suggested that China has become a dumping ground for designs that have failed on foreign soil.

Any design that can not be sold in foreign countries can come to China and sell at a good price.

Another added,

Why does China look like the playground of foreign designers with laughable architecture ideas?

Here are a few more pics to help you form your own opinion, once you have a look, let us know what you think in the comments.

[Source: The Telegraph, RMJM]