Archinect - News

Montrealers ask: What to do with the Olympic Stadium?

2024-03-28T13:45:00-04:00

But nostalgia rarely makes for good decision making. Keep the tower and repurpose it as a tourist destination. With the money saved, we can erect a better stadium serving the city’s current and future needs. Not all landmarks are sacred. When fire consumed the Notre-Dame cathedral, they raced to replace the roof; Montreal’s Olympic Stadium is not Notre-Dame.

Quebecers face a vexing choice: Keep the stadium or pursue an even costlier demolition that would erase the landmark, which late architect Roger Taillibert called a “poem in concrete,” owing to its location over two underground metro stations. The new, $870 million replacement roof that is being made transparent to let in natural light for the first time won't be completed by 2028. (The original Kevlar roof partially collapsed in 1999 and has suffered several smaller tears since being constructed in the late-1980s.)

Montreal has been floated as a potential location for a new MLB expansion franchise for the past few years. Our preview of the new BIG and HNTB-designed home of the relocating Oakland A's franchise in Las Vegas (another city that was on the league's expansion list) can be found here.

Kengo Kuma's Tokyo Olympic Stadium breaks ground

2016-12-13T17:29:00-05:00

Tokyo has held a groundbreaking ceremony for a $1.5bn (£1.2bn) national stadium that will host the 2020 Olympic Games. The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, Tokyo’s governor, Yuriko Koike, and other dignitaries attended the event on Sunday at the site of the demolished national stadium that was used during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. [...] The ceremony ended with a video showing how the stadium is expected to look and function once completed by November 2019.

A quick refresher, here are just a few instances of the Tokyo Olympic Stadium saga in the Archinect news:

Bjarke Ingels Group, BIG, tackles NFL stadium design for the Washington Redskins

2016-01-07T13:45:00-05:00

“People involved in building stadiums are usually very reliant on the firms who have demonstrated a strong record in understanding sports sites,” [Christopher S.] Dunlavey said. “BIG is known very well for very innovative architecture and design, but they haven’t been known for that kind of expertise.”

National Football League sports stadium design isn't usually a province of the starchitect, but in typical convention-defying style, the Bjarke Ingels Group isn't letting that deter them. In other parts of the world, starchitects have had mixed success with stadium design; Herzog & de Meuron's Bird's Nest for the 2008 Olympics was widely considered to be a success, while Zaha Hadid's proposed New National Stadium for Japan devolved into a nightmare of construction cost inflation and politics. The politics behind the STILL-insensitively-named Redskins' stadium are already fraught; among other issues, the team is trying to lock down a site. Good luck, Bjarke!

Zaha Hadid issues disappointed statement on Tokyo Olympic Stadium decision

2015-12-22T12:20:00-05:00

Now that the cat is out of the bag and the Japanese government has officially announced Kengo Kuma's stadium proposal as the new winning design for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, all eyes are on Zaha Hadid Architects, design firm of the voluptuous initial winning stadium spaceship which was ultimately pulled back to earth in mid-takeoff by the immense gravity of an outraged public reaction.

Dame Hadid, fighting for a second chance for her redesigned submission until the very last minute, reacted swiftly and issued an expectedly disappointed statement on her website this morning:

“We were honoured to be selected to design a stadium that would enable Japan to welcome the world for the 2019 Rugby World Cup and bring the 2020 Olympic Games to Tokyo, before becoming a new home for Japanese sport for many future generations.

“Sadly the Japanese authorities, with the support of some of those from our own profession in Japan, have colluded to close the doors on the project to the world.

“This shockin...

Kengo Kuma selected for new Tokyo Olympic Stadium

2015-12-22T02:01:00-05:00

The government on Tuesday picked a design by architect Kengo Kuma for the new National Stadium, a building that is expected to become the centerpiece of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. One of two short-listed entries and identified until now only as design A, Kuma’s plan was a joint submission in partnership with construction giant Taisei Corp. The competing design, identified as design B, was by architect Toyo Ito [...].

Last week's rumors turned out to be true - the winning Design A was indeed developed by Kengo Kuma & Associates, beating out Toyo Ito's less successful Design B.

UPDATE: Zaha Hadid issues disappointed statement on Tokyo Olympic Stadium decision

Previously in the Archinect news:

Kengo Kuma & Toyo Ito rumored to be designers behind new Tokyo Olympic Stadium proposals

2015-12-15T17:20:00-05:00

Wood latticework, green shrubbery, sunken sports fields and temple-like touches can be seen in the two final design proposals for Tokyo’s controversial new Olympic Stadium. [...] The new proposals [...] are more understated in style and also smaller in physical form compared to the originally commissioned design. [...] The agency has not named the firms behind the two final designs, although unconfirmed local media reports stated that they were Kengo Kuma and Toyo Ito [...].

Design A - rumored to be by the office of Kengo Kuma.

Design B - believed to come from Toyo Ito's firm.

Which design is your immediate favorite? Who is going to finally build the Japan National Stadium? Let us know in the comment section.

UPDATE: Kengo Kuma selected for new Tokyo Olympic Stadium

Previously in the Archinect news:

Japanese government hopes to cap Olympic stadium costs at US$1.28 billion

2015-08-28T12:17:00-04:00

The government hopes to cap the cost of building the main stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at ¥155 billion, much lower than the ¥252 billion projected under a recently scrapped plan [...]. The government intends to make sure that the stadium will be built by April 2020. But given the International Olympic Committee’s request that the venue be built by January of that year, it plans to ask a yet-to-be-named contractor to propose shortening its construction schedule, the sources said.

Read more about the troubled New National Stadium Tokyo in the Archinect news:

Zaha Hadid reportedly not giving up on Tokyo stadium plans

2015-07-23T13:38:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid, the architect whose plans for the National Stadium have been scrapped, hopes to remain involved in the planning for the centerpiece for the 2020 Olympics, the Japan Sport Council said Thursday. The council said Jim Heverin, a director of Hadid’s company, conveyed her wishes on a fact-finding visit to Japan following the cancellation. [...] Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Japan faces a ¥5.9 billion bill for the work done so far and contracts already signed.

Despite Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pulling the plug on Hadid's stadium design last week due to the unforeseen astronomical costs, the Japan Sport Council is nonetheless on the hook now for ¥5.9 billion (nearly $48 million) for the work that had already been done so far by various parties. Zaha Hadid Architects' fee alone is reportedly $11.88 million — and that's without any damages the firm might seek over the cancelled contract.

Previously:

Zaha's Tokyo Olympic Stadium cancelled – Abe calls for a redesign from scratch

2015-07-17T12:59:00-04:00

After multiple reassurances that Zaha Hadid Architect's design for the Tokyo Olympic Stadium would continue, despite skyrocketing costs since its 2012 announcement and constantly decreasing public favor, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced today that the stadium would be scratched in favor of a complete redesign. The stadium, which was most recently estimated to cost ¥252 billion, had become more and more expensive due to rising construction costs in Japan, NHK World reports.

Zaha Hadid Architects issued a statement on their website responding to the decision, stating that the rising costs were not due to the design per-se, and that the real difficulty was agreeing on an acceptable construction cost. The statement expressed confidence, based on past major stadium experience (such as for the 2012 London Olympic Games), that ZHA could reliably build their design in a cost-effective manner. Public opinion in Japan was not enamored with the design – it had even spawned a satiric...