Japan Selects New Stadium Design for 2020 Tokyo Olympics
After scrapping the original architectural plan for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic stadium due to a ballooning cost estimate and ridicule over its resemblance to a bicycle helmet, officials selected a new design on Tuesday.
Toshiaki Endo, the minister in charge of the 2020 Games, said the wood-latticed structure was in “harmony with the surrounding environment” and exhibited “Japaneseness.”
The original proposal by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid won the design competition in 2012 and it was praised by a panel of judges for its futuristic conception.
However, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the executive decision in July to rescind the deal when public uproar erupted over its construction costs, which nearly doubled the original estimate to $2.1 billion.
