<Tr> <Th> Services engineer </Th> <Td> BuroHappold Engineering </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Awards and prizes </Th> <Td> Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award </Td> </Tr> <P> The Millennium Dome, also referred to simply as The Dome, is the original name of a large dome - shaped building, originally used to house the Millennium Experience, a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millennium of the Anno Domini calendar era . Located on the Greenwich Peninsula in South East London, England, the exhibition was open to the public from 1 January to 31 December 2000 . The project and exhibition was the subject of considerable political controversy as it failed to attract the number of visitors anticipated, with recurring financial problems . All of the original exhibition and associated complex has since been demolished . The dome still exists, however, and it is now a key exterior feature of The O2 . The Prime Meridian passes the western edge of the Dome and the nearest London Underground station is North Greenwich on the Jubilee line . </P> <P> The dome is one of the largest of its type in the world . Externally, it appears as a large white marquee with twelve 100 m - high yellow support towers, one for each month of the year, or each hour of the clock face, representing the role played by Greenwich Mean Time . In plan view it is circular, 365 m (one metre for each day in a standard year) in diameter . It has become one of the United Kingdom's most recognisable landmarks . It can easily be seen on aerial photographs of London . Its exterior is reminiscent of the Dome of Discovery built for the Festival of Britain in 1951 . </P>

When was the millennium dome open and closed