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• The Beijing National Stadium is a sports arena built in Beijing to prepare for the 2008 Olympics. Because of its characteristic appearance, it is also known as the Bird's Nest Stadium. The National Stadium will hold the Olympics' opening and closing ceremonies as well as track and field events.

• Fast Facts

  1. Official name: Beijing National Stadium
  2. Also known as: Bird's Nest Stadium
  3. Designed by Swiss architects, Herzog and de Meuron
  4. Artistic consultation by prominent Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei
  5. Ground broken: December, 2003
  6. Construction began: March, 2004
  7. Construction completed: March, 2008
  8. Cost: $400 millionPeople's Daily Online: Beijing National Stadium designers win award (March 12, 2008)
  9. Permanent seats: 80,000
  10. Additional temporary seating for the 2008 Olympics: 11,000
  11. Officials denied reports of 10 deaths during arena's constructionReuters: Beijing dnies 10 deaths at Bird's Nest (January 21, 2008)

• Start, Stop, and Restart

  The original design called for a completely-covered roof made out of the same interweaving steel belt material as the rest of the arena. But construction was temporarily halted in August 2004 while the designers Herzog and de Meuron reworked the design to cut rising costs. The final design is 22.3% smaller than the original, and the "bird's nest" outer covering has been reduced by 13%.Design Build Network: National Stadium, Beijing (2008)

• Other Pre-Olympics Construction Projects

  1. Digital Beijing Building
  2. The Water Cube
  3. Beijing Airport Terminal Three

• Related Mahalo Pages

  2008 Olympics | China | Herzog and de Meuron | Ai Weiwei | The Water Cube (Aquatics Center) | Zhu Pei | Digital Building | Beijing

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