Beijing Capital International Airport, Terminal 3

Terminal 3 is the world's largest airport building, according to its architects Foster+Partners of London, covering some 10.6 million square feet (985,000 square meters)--larger than the Pentagon....[More]

Beijing Capital International Airport, Terminal 3

Terminal 3 is the world's largest airport building, according to its architects Foster+Partners of London, covering some 10.6 million square feet (985,000 square meters)--larger than the Pentagon. The roof resembles a dragon and is studded with skylights that provide the bulk of the terminal's lighting as well as nourishment to the imperial style garden inside. The airport terminal took just four years to complete, employing a small army of 50,000 workers, at a cost of roughly $3.8 billion (27 billion yuan).  [Less] [Link to this slide]

Steve Zhang

Beijing National Aquatics Center

Known as the "Bubble Building" for its distinctive covering, the translucent plastic encasing this $150-million (1-billion-yuan) building finished in January allows sunlight in for lighting as well as to heat the 7,000 square foot (650 square meter) building and its showcase pool....[More]

Beijing National Aquatics Center

Known as the "Bubble Building" for its distinctive covering, the translucent plastic encasing this $150-million (1-billion-yuan) building finished in January allows sunlight in for lighting as well as to heat the 7,000 square foot (650 square meter) building and its showcase pool. It's also built to save water in this dry city, where the lip-chapping air evaporates standing water in hours, capturing around 350,000 cubic feet (10,000 cubic meters) of rainfall per year in catchments on its surface and recycling 80 percent of the water it uses.  [Less] [Link to this slide]

Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad

Forbidden City

The imperial palace is getting a paint job for the Olympics--and all the visitors that event is expected to bring. The former residence of the Ming and Qing emperors boasts 980 buildings, many of which are in need of restoration, either to replace rotting wood or to refresh the coatings on their countless intricate designs....[More]

Forbidden City

The imperial palace is getting a paint job for the Olympics--and all the visitors that event is expected to bring. The former residence of the Ming and Qing emperors boasts 980 buildings, many of which are in need of restoration, either to replace rotting wood or to refresh the coatings on their countless intricate designs.  [Less] [Link to this slide]

Dave Biello

China Central Television Headquarters

This iconic skyscraper still under construction makes a continuous loop out of two bracketing, leaning towers of glass and steel that connect to form an off-center parallelogram with a gaping hole in the middle....[More]

China Central Television Headquarters

This iconic skyscraper still under construction makes a continuous loop out of two bracketing, leaning towers of glass and steel that connect to form an off-center parallelogram with a gaping hole in the middle. The challenging design, which has cost at least $700 million (4.9 billion yuan), also requires the rigor to withstand Beijing's occasional earthquakes.  [Less] [Link to this slide]

Dave Biello

National Museum of China

Built in 1959, this museum off Tiananmen Square displays the "national bird of China" on its roof, visible throughout town on buildings being renovated like this one or newly constructed....[More]

National Museum of China

Built in 1959, this museum off Tiananmen Square displays the "national bird of China" on its roof, visible throughout town on buildings being renovated like this one or newly constructed. The $3.8-million (26.5-million-yuan) renovation will enlarge the museum from 700,000 to 2.1 million square feet (65,000 to 192,000 square meters) to showcase its collection of 610,000 archaeological treasures and antiquities covering thousands of years of Chinese history.  [Less] [Link to this slide]

Dave Biello

Beijing National Stadium

Entwined twigs of steel cup this more than $540-million (3.8-billion-yuan) Olympic stadium that has come to be called the "Bird's Nest"--almost as if the new national bird needed a home....[More]

Beijing National Stadium

Entwined twigs of steel cup this more than $540-million (3.8-billion-yuan) Olympic stadium that has come to be called the "Bird's Nest"--almost as if the new national bird needed a home. Based on the artistic conception of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, the stadium holds 91,000 spectators and will employ more than 1,000 photovoltaic panels from Chinese solar manufacturer Suntech, which are expected to provide 130 kilowatts of power to offset at least some of the building's power demand.  [Less] [Link to this slide]

Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad