Since 2001, when Beijing's Olympic bid prevailed, international and local designers have been arriving as if drawn by a magnet. Lately, British engineering firm Arup, which has worked on the construction and design of four of the Big Five, has so many visitors coming through that it hired hosts and printed a city map highlighting 29 of its buildings. Rory McGowan, the head of Arup's Beijing office, which is overseeing construction of the CCTV Tower, says conditions are ripe, from the demand for fast growth to the willingness of urban planners to try new ideas.
And there's Beijing's relatively low costs and its wealth of open spaces, many of them old factory plots.
'The CCTV Tower will never be repeated,' he says.
Today, design is everywhere. 'There's a lot of new money in China now,' says Gregor Hoheisel, an architect at Graft LLC, who created a new hotel overlooking the Forbidden City. 'New money tends to be a bit louder.' Here is a guide to the new must-sees, plus some lesser-known architectural treasures.
NATIONAL CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
The vast, low-lying space-age oval designed by France's Paul Andreu is covered in titanium and surrounded by a pool of water. The building was met with extraordinary controversy, starting with the entryway. Visitors enter via underground walkway. Wan Siquan, the engineer who oversaw construction, says he became comfortable with this feature only after satisfying himself that the complex could be completely evacuated within minutes. Now, he shows visitors how underground water keeps the pool's temperature stable, preventing algae outbreaks in summer and ice in winter. Critics have complained that a foreigner was chosen to design such a prominent building -- and that it looks like a giant fried egg.
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