Hot of the Press:
1. US Firm Wins 2008 Beijing Games Venue Design Contest
2. Beijing Issues Action Plan for 2008 Olympics
3. Natural Solution to Olympiad Designs
4. Beijing Stresses Its Own Way in Hosting Olympics
5. Prep Work for 2008 Games Under Way
US Firm Wins 2008 Beijing Games Venue Design Contest
(07/15/2002) (China Daily)
The first winners of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing were announced Sunday with American architects Sasaki Associates scooping two prizes for design competitions.
The event was held for the conceptual designs of two major venues for the Games - the Olympic Green and the Wukesong Cultural and Sports Centre.
San Francisco-based Sasaki Associates won the US$250,000 top prize for the Olympic Green - the nucleus of the Games which holds the Olympic Park, Athletes Village and the stadium which will host the opening ceremony - which was designed in partnership with Tianjin Huahui Architect and Design Company.
Sasaki also collected second prize for its design for the Wukesong Centre as no design was deemed good enough for the top prize. Another second prize was won by Burckhardt+PartnerAG of Switzerland.
Beijing Mayor Liu Qi, who is also president of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Organizing Committee, awarded high marks to the competition which is believed to have been the biggest of their kind in the capital's history.
"This is a very successful competition," he said. "It was run in a fair, open and transparent manner with so many top designers joining the race."
Liu, who listened to the judging report from the 13-member jury Sunday with other Beijing municipal government officials, said the level of competition had been very high. "I loved many of them (the submitted plans).They are very good," the mayor said.
A total of 87 plans were submitted since the contest was opened in April, 54 for the Olympic Green and 33 for the Wukesong Centre. The jury consists of six foreigners and seven Chinese. Jury president Liu Thai Ker of Singapore said his colleagues were amazed at the variety and detail of the plans.
"There is an abundance of culture, creative ideas and illustration methods in this competition and it shows the massive enthusiasm for the Beijing Games from all around the world," said Liu, an expert architect and urban planner who was a jury member considering the designs for the Beijing International Exhibition and Sports Centre in 2000 and Beijing Central Business District last year.
Liu said the environment, transportation, after-games usage, "Chinese character" and feasibility were the focus of the jury. Liu also stressed that actual construction would not necessarily follow the winning plans. "These are only the conceptual draft plans which are too primitive at this stage. The individual constructions will be the subject of separate international competitions."
An open and free exhibition will be held in the Beijing International Convention Centre from July 16 to 26, allowing the public to vote for their No 1 choice.
Beijing Issues Action Plan for 2008 Olympics
(07/12/2002) (xinhua)
Beijing organizers officially released a guiding document for the 2008 Olympics on Friday, one day before the first anniversary of the city's successful bid for the 2008 Olympics. The document, titled "Beijing Olympics Action Plan", will become the guideline for the city's preparations for the Olympics.
It covers five major areas including the overall strategic concept, development of Olympic venues and related facilities, national environment and infrastructure development, social environment development, and strategic support.
The draft document, worked out by experts from different fields, was issued in March to solicit opinions from the public. It drew great attention from all walks of life across the country, as the organizers received up to 2,000 calls and more than 300 letters from not only the host city, but also other parts of the country, including HK, Macao, and Chinese Taipei. Opinions on the document also came from the Beijing-based commercial institutions of such countries as the United States, Japan, Spain, Italy and Canada.
The statement said that the public have shown common concern about those hard-to-handle issues closely related with people's livelihood.
"Such as the prevention and control of air pollution and water pollution, augmentation of greenery coverage in the city, lessening of traffic jams, planning and construction of Olympic venues, and improvement of urbanites' quality," said the statement. To the delight of the organizers, some people proved to be quite professional and their advice had great feasibility.
"Their advice is also enclosed with detailed scenarios. Some even offered their works of research or invention, which they said would be free to the organizers if the organizing committee like," said the statement.
In addition, the responding public expressed great desire to get involved in the preparations for the Olympics, inquiring about the bidding process in course of the construction of Olympics venues, how to offer donations or sponsorships, and how to use the Olympic emblems.
Meanwhile, the public is also concerned about how the 2008 Games could leave a unique legacy for both China and sports and how such legacy could fully show China's national features. With more than 50 amendments or supplementations made on the basis of the public's opinions, the final version of the action plan is more in accordance with Beijing's economic and social circumstances, becoming more practicable and more of a guideline document.
"The action plan is a vivid example of how the broad masses are concerned about the Olympics, and how they wish to get involved in and contribute to the Olympics," said the statement.
Natural Solution to Olympiad Designs
(07/15/2002) (China Daily)
Mountains and water - the essence of China.
It is these two essential elements of Chinese traditional painting that the jury wish to see most in the Olympic venues of the Beijing 2008 Games.
The 13-member jury favoured natural landscapes in their judgements of the design contests for two Olympic venues - Olympic Green and Wukesong Cultural and Sports Centre.
"We would like to stress the importance of water and the combination of mountains with water," said Liu Thai-Ker, the jury president and a Singaporean architect and urban planning expert.
"I think a place which is abundant with water is the most beautiful one."
With rich experience as an urban planning consultant of Beijing municipal government, Liu considered the two as the cream of Chinese culture.
"Beijing organizers want to demonstrate clear 'Chinese characteristics' in their Olympic build-up. We think mountains and water can best realize it," Liu said.
Other jury members agreed. "The two venues are quite big and how would we make them typically Chinese? We like to put the ideology of 'mountain and water' into them," said Weiming Lu, an American Chinese urban planner who is also a consultant for the Beijing government.
The Beijing Games is being dubbed the "Green Olympics," and this is one of the three concepts of the Games. The favour on the two elements implies Beijing's ambition to run the Olympic Games in an environmentally sound manner. The city will undergo a 20-million-yuan (US$2.4 million) facelift focusing on improving the environment, including air quality and plant coverage.
"Global architects and urban planners are paying close attention to ecological afforestation," said Liu. "We want to spotlight this trend in our judgement."
Liu added the winning plans were the right mix of different cultures because they were praised by jury members from many different cultural backgrounds.
The 13 members are from six countries including France, Germany and Japan.
"We started with a large gap between us but ended on a common idea. That proves the judgement process is a success," said Liu.
Feasibility was largely taken into consideration and actual construction will not necessarily follow the winning plans.
But Beijing organizers said they would draw ideas from the plans as much as possible.
"I think some of the plans are pretty close to what we will use," said Beijing Mayor Liu Qi.
Beijing plans to pump US$1.65 billion into the construction of 37 stadia and gymnasia used for Olympic competitions and another 59 for training.
Beijing Stresses Its Own Way in Hosting Olympics
(07/12/2002) (xinhua)
While pledging to build on experiences of past Olympic hosts, Beijing organizers said on Friday that they would gave full display to their own advantages in hosting the top sporting event. Addressing a meeting in honor of the first anniversary of the successful bid for the 2008 Olympics, Liu Qi, President of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG), said that as a city of a developing country, Beijing should take into account both the host's specific circumstances and what other hosts had done.
"'Green Olympics, High-tech Olympics, People's Olympics' are the themes for our Olympics, showing that we have taken in what other hosts had done," said Liu.
But the reason that Los Angeles, Sydney or Barcelona could be successful hosts is that they stressed their own merits and features while drawing on other hosts' experiences, added Liu. And compared with other host cities, the Chinese capital has three major features, according to Liu, who is also Beijing Mayor.
"Firstly, under China's social system, we could gather the national resources for big events," he said. "Secondly, China's economy is developing in a fast, healthy and sustainable way; and thirdly, all walks of life of the country has great enthusiasm to be involved in the Olympics," he added.
Liu stressed the significance of having the whole country getting involved in the Olympics.
"What the Olympics in China is distinguished from others is that all the 1.2 billion people of the country are the hosts of the Games.
"The involvement and support of the whole country is not only one of the major reasons that Beijing won the bid for the 2008 Games, but also one of the preconditions for Beijing to successfully stage the Games," he said.
Though the Beijing Olympics is at its initial stage of preparation, BOCOG have been encouraged by the enthusiasm people showed across the country.
The "Beijing Olympic Action Plan", which the city released this March to solicit public's opinions, has received great response from the whole country, as tens of hundreds of people voiced their ideas by means of letters and calls.
"It has fully proved the fact that all walks of life have great enthusiasm in the Olympic Games," he said.
Having made some changes according to the social response, the action plan, which will serve as the guideline for the city's development during the next six years, was officially published on the website of the organizing committee on Friday.
Liu said that since it is the first time for China to host the Olympics, the host would act as a trailblazer for other developing countries in terms of the hosting of the Games.
"We would contribute new things to the Olympic Movement, developing a new way and useful experiences for other developing countries to draw on," he said.
He reconfirmed the commitment that China would stage the sporting event in a frugal manner, while meeting the requirements of holding the Olympics.
Since Beijing is a city of a developing country, "it is more necessary for Beijing to show its singularity and attach importance to the frugality and pragmatism in hosting the Games," he said.
The principle of frugality has been highlighted in the course of construction of the Olympic venues. "We wouldn't build new venues if those existing ones could be renovated, and we would not build permanent venues if temporary facilities are practicable," said Liu.
"Favorable economic results is one of the significant hallmarks of the games' success," said liu. "As the city of a developing country, we should pay more attention to this respect," he said.
Prep Work for 2008 Games Under Way
(07/10/2002) (China Daily)
Just days before the first anniversary of Beijing's epic win in its bid for the right to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, Beijing officials said they had made great progress in preparing for the Games, which will be the first ever Olympics to be held in China.
But they also reminded people that more and tougher preparation work still lies ahead, as the city launches the massive multi-billion-dollar Olympic venue building programme and sets out its promotional strategies.
"What we have done for the Games so far has gone very smoothly," said Liu Jingmin, vice-mayor of Beijing and executive vice-president of the Beijing 2008 Olympics Organizing Committee, giving the committee a pat on the back for work done over the past year.
He said the preparations had covered a diverse range of work such as developing some of the Olympic venues, marketing, co-ordination with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), publicity activities and image build-up for the 2008 Games.
The city is preparing to celebrate the first anniversary with various activities.
A forum on popularizing key cultural themes for the Games was held yesterday at the Renmin University of China to train volunteers to promote Games-related cultural activities.
A 20-item action plan for cultural activities was also launched yesterday at the forum.
Beijing is set to spend US$1.65 billion on the 37 stadiums and gymnasiums and 59 training venues for the Olympics.
An international design competition was launched in April for two important Olympic sites - the Olympic Green and Wukesong Cultural and Sports Centre which will contain the majority of the Olympic venues.
The committee received 91 draft plans for the two sites from 177 applicants around the world before the deadline on July 2, and a 13-member judging panel consisting of experts from home and abroad is to select 13 prize-winning plans on July 14.
Liu said the committee had also put a lot of effort into studying marketing strategies for the 2008 Games.
He said the Beijing committee and the IOC were expected to ink an deal on marketing in September with the actual work getting under way next year.
Successful marketing is essential for the Beijing Games and the committee hopes to channel about US$1.3 billion into its marketing campaign.
Other preparatory work includes image-building for the 2008 Games, with a large-scale promotional design conference held earlier this month.
The committee is also holding a design competition for the new Olympic logo.
Editor: David Snodgrass
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT, U.S. COMMERCIAL SERVICE, 2002. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES.
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