How the Olympic year reshaped the Beijing skyline

Beijing has worked hard to transform itself for the Olympics. Since winning the bid, city officials have commissioned major projects to foreign architects and garnered both the awe and ire of urban designers, artists and onlookers who see the new buildings as either art or avant-garde gone overboard. As the Olympics begin, a survey of these works is in order.

The National Center for the Performing Arts, commonly called “The Egg,” best demonstrates the controversy over Beijing’s architectural adventurism. Whether it’s a much-needed dose of modernity or just a giant, silver pimple on the face of old Beijing, French architect Paul Andreu's mammoth titanium and glass theater is here to stay. Though the outside may look like a prop from War of the Worlds, the interior wins over the skeptics.

While the National Center for the Performing Arts is lambasted as cold and strange, the “twisted donut” design of the China Central Television Tower is hailed as a success. Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren of the Rotterdam-based Office for Metropolitan Architecture overcame great technical difficulties to build the 230-meter tower. Beijingers call it the “big underwear,” but anyone well schooled in cartoons knows Sponge Bob is the actual source of inspiration.

Meanwhile, the crown jewel of Beijing’s Olympic venues, the Bird’s Nest achieves what the Egg does not: melding Chinese and Western styles seamlessly into Beijing's skyline. Pritzker prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron, China Architecture Design & Research Group and Chinese artist Ai Weiwei all collaborated on the design.

Adjacent to the Bird's Nest, the National Aquatics Center (a.k.a. the Water Cube) warrants equal attention. Designed by Australian architecture firm PTW, the Water Cube uses a steel space frame to support giant bubbles made from advanced plastics. The center is environmentally friendly, with 80 percent of the water captured on the roof to be reused later.

City planners also took care to refine post-Olympic venues. Developer Swire Properties transformed Sanlitun with The Village, a 53,000 sq. meter, 19-building complex housing upscale stores, bars and dining including the world's largest Adidas store. As you walk around, it’s easy to forget you’re in Sanlitun, which may be a good or bad thing, depending on your perspective.

Matthew Durnin