TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Media giant CNN picked the Taipei Performing Arts Center as one of its “transformative buildings set to shape the world in 2021,” soon after British newspaper The Guardian selected it as a landmark edifice for the new year.

The building was designed by Taiwanese architect Kris Yao (姚仁喜) and by OMA, the company co-founded by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and responsible for projects such as the CCTV headquarters in Beijing.

The “eye-catching building – with its planet-like sphere protruding from one side – will undoubtedly serve as a contemporary landmark for the Taiwanese capital,” CNN wrote.

The center will include three theaters “plugging” into a central cube with one flexible backstage area serving all three of them. CNN noted that construction took eight years and cost NT$5.4 billion (US$192 million).

The performing arts center is located in the capital’s Shilin District, near bustling Shilin Night Market and Jiantan Mass Rapid Transit station.