BIRDNEST Stadium

Organisers of the 2008 Beijing Olympics have stopped work on their 100,000-seat stadium in order to re-design it under orders to cut costs, a spokeswoman for the organisers said yesterday. Work has been suspended for a re-design meant to lower the cost, said Zhu Jing, a spokeswoman for the organizing committee. Zhu Jing said she didn’t know how long the suspension would last, the new projected cost or other details.

The suspension follows a demand by Mayor Wang Qishan last month for organizers to be more frugal. News accounts of his comments did not give details of the cost-cutting targets. The National Stadium, designed by Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron, initially was budgeted at 3 billion yuan (US$360mil).

Go to Beijing Municipal Comission of Urban Planning for the full presentation of key scheme proposed by architects around the world.