Olympic victory made in China
How a partnership with Shanghai talent helped Chicago land bid for 2016
Games
By Evan Osnos
Tribune foreign correspondent
Published April 22, 2007
SHANGHAI -- Until recently, 28-year-old computer engineer Zhai Shaojun's
knowledge of Chicago did not extend beyond the "Red Oxen," as he called
the Bulls in Mandarin.
But in a tale of globalization impossible even five years ago, Zhai and
others in China have become instrumental players in Chicago's bid for
the 2016 Summer Olympics. Key parts of the Olympics pitch have been
churned out half a world away from Chicago, swapped over the Internet
among architects, designers and techies on two continents.
When organizers of Chicago's Olympics bid arrive this week in Beijing to
meet international sports authorities, they will be visiting a nation
that helped the city edge out Los Angeles to become the U.S. candidate
for the 2016 Games.
Outsourcing work to China not only saves money, say the Chicago
architects behind the Olympics bid, but also doubles how much can be
done under tight deadlines, because one or the other side of the planet
is always awake and working.
Zhai, for instance, worked with seven other young Chinese engineers to
produce a flashy digital animated aerial film of the city designed to
woo U.S. Olympic officials. Indeed, Patrick Ryan, Chicago 2016 bid
chairman, said the transoceanic effort made flying over Chicago "come
alive."
"It really, really helped our bid," Ryan said. "It allowed us to show
the compactness of the area where we hope to host the 2016 Olympic Games."
But China's contribution runs deeper. The architect overseeing Chicago's
proposed main stadium, Ben Wood, lives not in the U.S. but in Shanghai,
and says one of the stadium's signature features -- most of it would be
recycled after the Games -- was inspired by China's environmental crisis.
"In the case of the Chicago Olympics, we're going to showcase how to be
green, how to be responsible, how to be sustainable. A sustainable
Olympics doesn't mean leaving behind a billion-dollar stadium, and a lot
of this we owe to China because they are having to deal with these
issues," said Wood, an influential architect in China who is best-known
in Chicago as one of two designers of the renovation of Soldier Field.
He and other designers have proposed a temporary 80,000-seat stadium and
a smaller stadium or amphitheater that would remain after the Games in
the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Washington Park -- though some
international Olympic officials have expressed concerns that a temporary
stadium would not leave enough legacy of the Games.
cont'd....
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