Dateline urbanism

Like all other hosts, Beijing became a gigantic stage on Friday — a spectacle for one of the most celebrated triumphs of humanity, the Olympic Games. There has been a high-profile race, a rush, in the urban development of Beijing: “the auspicious 08/08/08″ became the dateline for the completion of new spectacular architectural icons, the subway system, and even for the urban experiment to clear up the hazy Beijing skies.

And it was indeed exciting, with all these developments as the backdrop for the fireworks on the opening night. How could it not be?! These are the projects that flanked the spreads of archimags over and over and over again in the past year. This dateline saw every inch of Herzog de Meuron’s Birds’ Nest finally complete and fully manipulated for show effects; the Water Cube grandly, but unfortunately not-so-tastefully, lit during the Opening Ceremony; OMA’s CCTV glass facade finally complete…

The GoogleMaps have been updated, go play with it!

View Larger Map

What’s next? Sure the event has changed the face of Beijing forever. The buildings look great on TV, and perhaps even on GoogleEarth. But what will happen after the Games? How can these developments contribute to the city and the country after the Olympic traffic is gone?

Preparations for the Olympic Games in Sydney eight years ago created a whole new suburb, major sports village with sports/expo facilities, and upgraded the city centre as well as many tourist sites. The main Olympic site — Homebush Bay — which once attracted hundreds of thousands of people during the Games, now falls short in its integration with the daily urban life of Sydneysiders.

It will definitely be interesting to see the post-Olympic effects of the Beijing sites in five to ten years time.

***

P/s: Oh, the new Google Street View is worth trying out too!