Standing 400m wide (that's longer than the Empire State Building tip-to-tip!) and occupying an area of over 220,000 square meters, you would think the Beijing Olympic Green Convention Center would be the architectural centerpiece of the Olympic Boulevard.

But I bet you've never even noticed it.

Sandwiched between the Bird's Nest and Water Cube, the Convention Center is sadly the forgotten child of the the Olympic park. Though it opened this weekend as the new home of the Beijing International Media Center BIMC), International Broadcast Center (IBC) and Main Press Center (MPC) -- bonus points to anyone who can figure out what the difference between the three actually is -- and will offer round the clock services to over 20,000 foreign journalists for the duration of the Games, the Convention Center often escapes the notice of passing tourists.

However, its designers hope the Convention Center's impact will be felt in the long term. "Part of the challenge of this assignment was to ensure that the facility had a distinct and viable 'second life' shortly after the close of the Olympic Games," said Scott Findley, design director of UK-based architecture firm RMJM's Asia office.

The Center's deliberately "understated and timeless" look draws inspiration from traditional Chinese pagoda forms and is meant to ensure "long-term financial sustainability...in the city's infrastructure post-Games," explained RMJM Chief Exec Peter Morrison. In addition to the exhibition space, the Convention Center will be transformed after the Olympics into offices, retail stores, service apartments as well as a business and 5-Star hotel. The reshaped facility would open some time in 2009.

In line with BOCOG's "Green Olympics" theme, the Convention Center has also been fitted with environmentally friendly technologies, such as a rain water collection system on the roof for flushing and irrigation uses; an ice storage cooling system and a "free air cooling" ventilation system in the public foyers of the convention center.

With so much going for it, make sure you take at least a little bit of time away from gawking at the Bird's Nest to see what very well may become the legacy of the Beijing Games.