Beijing CCTV Headquarters
If Westerners arriving for the Olympics feel dazed and confused upon exiting the plane at the new international airport terminal here, it’s understandable. It’s not just the grandeur of the space. It’s the inescapable feeling that you’re passing through a portal to another world, one whose fierce embrace of change has left Western nations in the dust.
The sensation is comparable to the epiphany that Adolf Loos, the Viennese architect, experienced when he stepped off a steamship in New York Harbor more than a century ago. He had crossed a threshold into the future; Europe, he realized, was now culturally obsolete.
Designed by Norman Foster, Beijing’s glittering air terminal is joined by a remarkable list of other new monuments here: Paul Andreu’s egg-shaped National Theater; Herzog & de Meuron’s National Stadium, known as the bird’s nest; PTW’s National Aquatics Center, with its pillowy translucent exterior; and Rem Koolhaas’s headquarters for the CCTV television authority, whose slanting, interconnected forms are among the most imaginative architectural feats in recent memory.
Starwood’s aggressive expansion into the Chinese market is clearly depicted by its roster of over 20 blossoming properties salted to open their doors within the next two to three years. Just as the local Chinese place great emphasis on harmony, Starwood’s newest hotels in Beijing offer architectural designs that are in yin and yang balance with tradition and the future. Those headed to spectate the world’s athletes in Beijing could also be among the world’s first to step foot in the new Westin Beijing Chaoyang and Four Points Haidian. Both hotels are picturesque additions to the changing face of the new Beijing and are currently accepting reservations through Starwood’s special reservation request page for the Olympics.
