World Landscape Architect

Christopher Hawthorne wrote an interesting article about the Olympic Architecture and was interesting to read about his conversation with Sasaki about the Beijng Olympic Green as follows:

“I was put through to Dennis Pieprz, the president of the firm, who oversaw its work on the Green. After I asked him whether he would be in the capital during my visit and available to give me a tour of the results, there was a long pause.

“Well, I haven’t been to Beijing in quite some time,” he finally said, explaining that Olympic officials had taken over and modified the Sasaki plan so extensively that the firm now basically disavows the final product.

And there it was, plain as day on the firm’s website, when I went back to check: “Sasaki had no involvement in the design and implementation of the final landscape for the Beijing Olympics.”

So much for signature Olympic architecture. This is something closer to the reverse: A firm anxious to scrub its name from the official record before the Games get underway.”

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times – Chinese architects the winners in Games - .