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October 13, 2008 8:48:42 AM CDT

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Daring Architecture Energizes Beijing

Posted Jun 25, 08 5:30 PM CDT in World,  Glossies,  Arts & Living 

(Newser) – Some of the world’s most adventurous architects have found a gung-ho partner in Beijing, the most noticable payoff being the soon-to-be completed CCTV headquarters—"a dazzling reinvention of the skyscraper," writes Paul Goldberger in the New Yorker. Other creations, such as an ovoid peforming arts center dismissed as "the egg" by residents, come off as "silly and cumbersome," but such risks are worth it.

"Crowding, pollution, and sprawl still define the city, but the new architecture, far from replicating an American mistake, surpasses what most American cities would be willing, or able, to do," writes Goldberger. "This has an effect on the city’s mood: people talk about the new buildings and, whether they approve or not, recognize that such daring constructions would not get built anywhere else."

Source New Yorker

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Beijing's new National Stadium, constructed for the Olympics Games.   (AP Photo/Elizabeth Dalziel)
Workers renovate a pagoda below an apartment building in Beijing.   (AP Photo/Greg Baker)
The National Aquatics Center, left, and the National Olympic Stadium.   (AP Photo/Color China Photo)
The new China Central Television headquarters in Beijing.   (AP Photo/Greg Baker)
Another view of the striking CCTV building.   (AP Photo/Greg Baker)
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China  • Beijing  • architecture  • automobile  • new construction  • Forbidden City  • cctv


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