Photo provided to China Daily

Born and raised in China, Yao earned a bachelor's degree in architecture in Tsinghua University and worked in the Architectural Design and Research Institute there before she went to the US in 1993 and got a master's degree in architecture at Miami University. Yao worked for several architectural firms in New York City as a licensed architect. She joined OMA in Rotterdam in 2003 and came back to Beijing for the CCTV project in 2004.

All her passion for the project sprung from the first moment she saw the design, she recalls.

"It instantly struck me with the unprecedented structure. But I never thought that I would have the chance to get involved and for so long," Yao says.

The 234-meter skyscraper was completed in May 2012. The adjacent Television Cultural Center, which caught fire in 2009, is undergoing reconstruction with a hotel and a theater inside, Yao says.

Debate has never stopped about the CCTV building. Locals dubbed it "the big pants" because of its shape, while architects have criticized its enormous size and cost. But Yao remains cool in the face of the controversy.

"Time will tell," Yao says. "Every country has its own moment for great architectures. For New York, it was the early 1900s. And in China, it could be now."