The United States, Germany and Japan are among several countries invited to enter a competition resulting in the unveiling of 16 optional designs of the Beijing International Exhibition and Sports Center, (an integral part of the Olympic Park, called the Olympic Green), to be built should China win the 2008 Olympic bid.
The centre’s is 405 hectares in area and comprises an 80,000-seat main stadium, four other stadiums and a 400,000-square-metre athletes’ village and press centre. There’s also a 400,000-square-metre international exhibition centre and a 300,000-square-metre Beijing World Trade Centre housing luxury hotels and supplementary buildings.
There were twelve finalists in the design competition and five prize-winners.
RTKL, a U.S. company and the Beijing Construction Design Institute won second place prizes. Designs by Beijing Urban Development Design Institute, Beijing Tsinghua City Planning Institute and Construction Design Institute of Tsinghua University, and PAS company of Germany won third prizes.
No design won the top prize because of some flaws in their designs.
