CHINESE GO FOR THE GOLD IN INTRODUCING THE WORLD TO UNCONVENTIONAL ARCHITECTURE
Think of history's great architects: Michelangelo. Le Corbusier. Frank Lloyd Wright. Mike Brady.
They surely would be taken by some of the structures raised in Beijing for the Olympics. They are like nothing else in China, or anywhere. You think Las Vegas builds fast and big? Peanuts compared to this city.
Unconventional doesn't begin to describe some of the new buildings and Olympic venues. You half expect the Jetsons to come zooming out from behind Bird's Nest Stadium.
How do they do it?
China's government can provide plenty of the two things any architect worth his drafting table covets: space and money. So you can design a nest for a track and field stadium, a cube with colorful bubbles for a swim venue, a structure made to form a Z for a national television station, and an eggshell for a national grand theater.
"People hold different opinions about whether the large-scale introduction of variously styled architecture from global competitors will make Beijing an experimental area of foreign architecture," one local official told reporters. "In recent years, Beijing has taken big steps in introducing modern architecture at a high level."
It's a long way from Mike Brady's studio in "The Brady Bunch" house.
Which, if he designed, means Alice could have done a better job.
