Olympic park to follow US firm's design

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 ◆ Olympic park to follow US firm's design

Top officials with the Beijing Municipal City Planning Committee has confirmed that the final layout of the Olympic Green will be based on the design of the US architecture company Sasaki Associates.

The US firm won first prize in the global design competition for the Beijing Olympics earlier this month, with more than 20,000 votes.

An expert group from Beijing's major architectural design think-tanks has begun to negotiate with Sasaki's partners to further improve the plan and incorporate the advantages of other prize-winning layouts, China Daily reported recently.

The traffic system of the winning plan still needs to be further improved to meet the requirements of the 1,135-hectare grounds and neighboring districts, an official, surnamed Zhang, from the planning committee was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, further research and negotiations are needed on the arrangement of bus and train stations.

Residents are also having their say on the designs of the Olympic Green and Wukesong Cultural and Sports Center in western Beijing.

Visitors to an ongoing design exhibition, which was originally scheduled to close on July 26 but extended to July 29 due to the unexpected visitor flow, have filled several big notebooks with advice and opinions.

No design has been chosen yet for the Wukesong Cultural and Sports Center because every single stadium has to be taken into consideration, according to Zhang, a chief planner.

Zhang and his colleagues are still comparing the winning plans and listening to stadium proprietors' ideas before making a final decision on the Wukesong Center.